H.E.A.T - Live In London (2014) Album Review

H.E.A.T – Live In London (2014)

Amazingly revitalized after the departures of their original singer Kenny Leckremo and of one of their guitarists Dave Dalone, and the arrival of Erik Grönwall, swedish lightning-charged melodic hard rock band H.E.A.T has for the past three years clearly established themselves as one of the truly best live acts on the rock scene.

I can testified, having witnessed their energy and enthusiam on 9^th december 2014, live at La Flèche d'Or, here in Paris. Performing on my birthday, I must say that they went far beyond my expectations as they blew the roof off that night. A crazy singer, a guitarist in top form, and a rythm section locking perfectly with the layers of keyboards, they gave us a great show. My only minor complaint would be about the fact that the venue was about ½, maybe ¾ full that night, and I fear that the band may not be touring France in the near future. But it seems that they went with better luck elsewhere in Europe, and especially overseas.

So it probably seemed logical for the band to record their first ever live album in London, to commemorate their may 16^th 2014 show at The Garage and their first-ever headlining tour.

The album setlist is as follows :

1. Point Of No Return
2. A Shot At Redemption
3. Better Off Alone
4. 1000 Miles
5. It's All About Tonight
6. Inferno
7. The Wreckoning / Tearing Down The Walls
8. Mannequin Show
9. Late Night Lady
10. In And Out Of Trouble
11. Downtown
12. Enemy In Me
13. Emergency
14. Breaking The Silence
15. Living On The Run

(TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 67min 22 sec.)

A quick look on the actual seltist of the concert on setlsit.fm reveals a few differences. In fact, while the liner notes make no mention of it, the band's press release mentions that the album was « Mainly recorded at The Garage in London on May 16, 2014 ». The commercially released album therefore seems to be a compilation of a few performances where the London show represents the biggest portion. That's how I understand the « additional recordings made in Manchester » mentioned in the liner notes, but they could also refer to additional studio overdubs. We sadly lose the cool appearance of Dragonforce's lead guitarist Herman Li on the “In And Out Of Trouble” London performance; there's a picture of him playing with the band inside the CD booklet.

The two latest albums, 2014's « Tearing Down The Walls » and 2012's « Adress The Nation » get the lion's share of the album setlsit, with respectively 7 and 6 songs. Their eponymous first studio album is represented with only one song ; nothing from Freddom Rock, the second album. « 1000 Miles », a non-album, single-only track, completes the setlist.

The band played around with the set list during the tour, so there had to be a selection among the performed tracks. I personnally regret that they didn't include live versions of « Beg Beg Beg » with their Highway Star snippet (which appears to be a Japan-Exclusive track) and the showstopping « All The Nights » on which Erik Grönwall was in top form when I saw them in Paris. But apart from these inor complaints, the chosen running order is quite tastefully done, and the whole album flows well, and is really representative of the energy showcased during a H.E.A.T live show. The focus is clearly on the explosiveness of it, thanks to charismatic lead singer Erik Grönwall especially.

The crucial point of a live album, apart from the quality of the songs and of the performances, is the sound. The high standards of performances held by the band are undisputable : they are all great, great musicians are truly love playing their music, which translates flowlessely on stage. So, what about the mix ? The album was mixed by Grammy award winning producer Tobias Lindell, who obviously knows his job. Lots of big sounding reverb on this record (the drum sound really HUGE, and to be honest, vastly different from how they do actually live). There's -sadly maybe- a few very obvious occurrences of touch-ups and overdubs on the album, mostly on backing vocals and lead vocals. They're all pretty good singers, but the performances here are a bit TOO flawless. Clearly not the first live album to do it, and probably not the last one. The only thing very jarring are the crowd noise which is mixed to an honestly ridiculous level. After a quick googling, I learned that this venue has an approximate capacity of 600 : judging from the sound of the album, you'd think the band played in front of at least ten times more. Sometimes the audience reactions are so over-the-top you'd think the band was actually playing a headlining show at Donington Park. Listen to the transition between « The Wreckoning » and « Tearing Down The Walls ». There's no way a 600-ish crowd, as pumped up as it may be during a show, could make so much noise.

Unsurprisingly, the mastering is quite awful, lots of compression on the record. This added to the very warm sound and big sounding mix makes the album quite difficult to listen to on headphones. But it sounds better on

Apart from the usual war horses (namely AC/DC, Muse, Coldplay...),fewer and fewer bands release live albums, and even though this one has shortcomings, I'm glad they put it out. This is a perfect complement to their studio outputs, and a truly killer, great-sounding live album.

My Pick : Downtown – In And Out of Trouble – Breaking The Silence

Buy the album on the band's official website.