JADED HEART - Helluva Time

Posted: 11/11/07

Reviewed by: Dirt

Category: Melodic Hard Rock

Released: 10/10/05

Label URL: www.frontiers.it

Artist URL: www.jadedheart.de

Jaded Heart has been a kicking around since 1991, but aside from IV, I’ve never heard their other material.  I will not profess to be a Jaded Heart expert, so I cannot really give much opinion on their change in vocalists from Michael Bormann to Johan Fahlberg.  Surely, I can comment on the quality of Fahlberg, but as to which vocalist is superior or better for this band, I’ll leave that up to someone who knows Jaded Heart a bit better.

While Helluva Time is not the band’s most recent album (the band just released Sinister Mind), I felt it definitely deserved some space at MetalDreams.net.  After all, they are a traditional band, and that’s what we’re all about.  Helluva Time was album number eight for this band that hails from Germany, and it was their first on the Frontiers label.  The album title suggests a raucous album, and while it’s an upbeat album, it certainly isn’t as wild and rocking as the title would lead you to believe.  The twelve tracks are a mix of rockers, mid-paced melody-driven tracks, and ballads.  The production spotlights an emphasis on crunchy guitars and prominent drumming on many of the tracks, and on a song like “Somewhere” the repeated riff will certainly be the thing that catches your ear.  Even the line – “There’s no way out” will hook you.  Again, the guitar riffs are the focus of “Who’s Foolin’” but the chorus is incredibly strong too – it has everything I love about hard rock music.  The cover of Anastasia’s “Paid My Dues” shows up in the middle of the disc and is another memorable track that fits the band perfectly.  In fact, this anthem works so well for the band – they should consider writing some songs of their own in this rowdy vein.  Ballads such as “Hole In My Heart,” “Shores Of Paradise,” “No One” and “Without You” are the opposite end of the spectrum and while performed in a top notch fashion, they are rather generic in my opinion and lighten the band up too much.  While the album ends with the rippin’ “Love To Live,” overall the album is not weighted toward the bombastic.

The Bloody Truth:  I find many positive qualities in Jaded Heart.  Johan Fahlberg is a powerful mid-range singer that has a distinctive style.  The band is also a tight, professional unit with a nice, clean sound that mixes guitar, keyboards and drums to come up with a classic hard rock style.  Helluva Time is a solid album.  The band does seem to hold back a bit though.  Hopefully, their new album, Sinister Mind, will give us more songs as rockin’ as “Who’s Foolin” and “Love To Live.”