Don’t Let anyone tell you otherwise H.E.A.T. is one of the finest Hard Rock bands out there at the moment to play music that has all the hallmarks of the great Melodic Hard Rock bands of the 80’s. A dozen years old this year H.E.A.T. is also a band that hasn’t put a foot wrong for me either and delivered five flawless albums even if 2017’s ‘Into the Great Unknown’ did break the cycle of an album every two years.
Indeed both myself and Classic Rock’s Dave Ling had great things to say about that release; Dave said “H.E.A.T. have just made the most complete album of their career. Watch their rise continue.” and I said “This could just be the album that takes them to that next level and into the great unknown.” see what I did there?
Anyway enough of that, this bit’s important… If you like H.E.A.T.’s studio work then just wait till you see them live. They are one of those rare bands whose studio output only hints at what’s to come when you get in the same room as them! OK I realise that Sweden Rock is rather a large stage to be called a ‘room’ but you get the point.
How then can you possibly review a live album like this? I mean the recording itself sounds great. The performance is exceptional. And both the band and the audience appear to be on top form. For once I can honestly say OK if you’ve never heard of this band buy the ‘live’ album (think of how few bands you can say that of).
Opening as the latest studio offering does with ‘Bastard of Society’ you know from the off that this is a band who don’t mess around, they’re also a band that doesn’t have that awkward part mid way through the gig where they either get all deep and meaningful or drop in a few dodgy songs as the catalogue doesn’t quite stand up. H.E.A.T.has no such moments, they don;t have songs like that, this is Rock and Roll through and through.
The only surprise for me is that they then jump straight to ‘Late Night Lady’ from the debut right after , its a nice surprise and a great song to get you fired-up. And ‘Mannequin Show’ that they follow up with is huge with the crowd. I’m proud to say The Rockpit premiered ‘Redefined’ in 2017 and for a song that layers on the keys and changes the pace completely but it seems to work rather wickedly well under the Swedish skies.
‘Heartbreaker’ of course further heats up proceedings again, whilst new songs ‘Shit City’ and Beg Beg Beg’ don’t miss a beat and don’t seem out of place at all. It’s the second half of the set though that really shows the class of this band: ‘Tearing Down the Walls’ keeps up the pace and the wonderful ‘Eye of the Storm’ has all the passion and intensity you recall and separates it from two other album-mates in ‘Emergency’ and ‘Inferno’ which both packing huge punches.
By the times we hit ‘Living on the Run’ you feel the band has the entire crowd in their hands. ‘A Shot at Redemption’ the crowning glory of ‘Tearing Down the Walls’ of course closes. As second live albums go this ticks the boxes after the ‘Live in London’ record from 2015. The new songs sound great and the big stage sounds made for them.
4.5/5
