Artist : Leverage

Album : Determinus

Release Date : 26-04-2019

Added : 15-06-2019

'Leverage' is a Finnish band that mixes different genres between hard rock and metal and had a first career in the early 2000s to 2009 with 3 albums (2 are available in Spotify - see here and here), which reappears after ten years with a new album 'Determinus', a new singer 'Kimmo Blom' and a new guitarist 'Mikko Salovaara', both having taken the crucial role within the formation. At the first listening of this last opus, many names of formations of rock or hard-rock of the last forty years came to my mind because the whole is varied and makes us travel in a patchwork of influences: 'Burn Love Burn' starts the album with an energetic and melodic title that has several parts with several changes of tempo and melodic lines which brings a progressive side to the title, then, with 'Wind of Morrigan' we embark for a catchy composition that mixes Celtic influences and rock close to 'Kansas'. Follow 'Tiger', heavier but still catchy and melodic reminiscent of the style of 'Survivor' in the 80s, then the ballad 'Red Moon over Sonora' allows a break that brings us back to the intonations of 'Kansas'. As for the epic and theatrical 'Mephistocrates', it offers us an instrumental section worthy of the name with a masterful guitar solo and 'Afterworld's Disciple' returns to the style of 'Tiger' and the power ballad 'When We Were Young' (and yes for the over 50 !), brings us back to the 80s and recalls the best compositions that slowly caused the arms to move in the air from one side to another, of an entire audience. The sequel offers the powerful 'Heaven's No Place For Us' and its little mid-title acoustic pause that precedes a magnificent 'Blackmorian' guitar solo, the catchy 'Hand of God' whose instrumental part alternates beautifully with acoustic guitar and electric, then the album ends with 'Rollerball' looking like 'Deep Purple' and, 'Troy', which one last time, embarks us into a memorable melody. In summary, the Finns of 'Leverage' return to the front of the hard-rock scene by offering us an excellent album at once varied, accessible and especially very melodic and 'Determinus' should appeal to a large public who sails between rock and hard-rock whether they be FM, symphonic or melodic...

Line Up / Musicians

Kimmo Blom (Vocal), Tuomas Heikkinen (Guitar), Mikko Salovaara (Guitar), Sami Norrbacka (Bass), Marko Niskala (Keybords), Valtteri Revonkorpi (Drums)