LOVE IN CHAINS
Everyday Heroes
Idora Entertainment-2022
The release of the debut LOVE IN CHAINS album Everyday Heroes brings together the talents of STEELCITY guitarist Mike Floros and APOCALYPTIC LOVERS singer Robert Kane. And for me, that's a damn good team up. I've become a big fan of both the guitar playing of Floros through the two STEELCITY albums and Kane's vocals on the APOCALYPTIC LOVERS album Redemption: Volume 1 are a big part of why I like that album a lot too.
So when I saw the two of them were teaming up for new project, I was definitely interested. Then as luck would have it, I got to hear one particular song from the album early. I'll talk about that a little later in this review but it certainly whetted my appetite for the album as a whole.
When the album's title track was officially released, I liked it. It's got a solidly uptempo pace and serves as a tribute to the first responders we rely on so much in daily life which gives the song a sense of timeliness as well.
But the "Everyday Heroes" song is just an appetizer once you start getting into the full track listing. I mean there is just some incredible rock and roll to be heard here.
The album kicks off with "Locked & Loaded", a non-stop blaze of fiery rocking. The music on its own is pretty damn amazing and I love the way Kane's vocals are delivered in a kind of rapid-fire manner. When you add in that big backing vocal sound for the track's chorus, if you can't get fired up and ready to rock with this song, you just might not have a pulse. This is one heck of amped up and energetic track. And this is just the FIRST song!
The song "Less Than Zero" continues that same kind of fired up rock and roll. It's got more of that enhanced backing gang vocal style on the chorus and the music from Mike Floros and Erik Johnson (who played both bass and drums for the Everyday Heroes album, though he's not part of the touring lineup) is just EXCELLENT!
You can hear more of that particular kind of style with the song "Rain", which kicks things into a high gear pretty fast and features a damn good guitar solo from Mike Floros. Meanwhile, the song "Without You" kind of ranges from mid-to-uptempo in terms of pacing. A bit slower in the main lyrical passages with the chorus being a bit more of a rock vibe.
I liked the way "Cherry Wine" opens. With the album lacking keyboards on any of the music, if you are going to have a "softer" sound to any of the music, it's going to come down to just how well your guitar player can pull it off and Floros nails this song's opening (which does recur throughout the song as well) perfectly. Written for his wife, the song is clearly sentimental and while I'm more of a grumpy old man who wants to rock out more than be reflective, I did like the way this one turned out a lot.
Is it blasphemy to say that I didn't really get into the cover of the KISS song "Love Gun"? It's not that it's a badly done cover or anything. Anything but that really. But it felt like it was kind of out of place on the album for some reason. And yes, I'm probably going to get some crap for that I know. But on a personal level, I would've preferred another original track instead.
Remember when I said I got to hear a track from the album earlier than most others? Well, it was the song "Darkness Falls". When I heard it that first time, my reaction was "That was F***KING AWESOME!" And that feeling continued when I listened to the album in full for this review. The song has an even heavier vibe to it than a lot of the other rocker type tracks on Everyday Heroes. That up-in-your-face vibe kicks in right from the first notes and as the vocals from Kane and the guitar work soar! This song stands alone for me as my favorite track on the album.
I had to sit with the song "Overdose" a bit. It's the track that would probably be marketed as a "power ballad". It's got a great intro to the song and with a midtempo pace that grows more intense for the chorus. The lyrics are mostly great as is Kane's performance. The song is passionate without being that kind of cloying that would set your teeth on edge. However, the one little nitpick I have to mention is that I really don't think the last line of the song's chorus works overly well. The reason I had to sit with the song a bit is because I had to wonder if I was being overly sensitive given the potential real world implications of that one particular line. (Being sensitive is not something I'm generally accused of.) But setting aside that one quibble, I was surprisingly moved by this song in the end.
Looking for another of my personal track highlights from Everyday Heroes? Well then you should check out the explosively charged "Down To The Wire". The song bursts from your speakers with pure attitude. There's some serious shredding to be had here and you can feel your heartbeat start to race as the band lays the hammer down on this song!
When you add in the album closing and aptly titled "Wildfire", you've got a ragingly electric soundtrack and a big bold vocal performance from Kane and in the backing vocals for the chorus. There's a lot of guitar pyrotechnics here (as with the rest of the album) and the song ends up leaving you breathlessly wanting more when it finally comes to an end.
Mike Floros has STEELCITY and Robert Kane has APOCALYPTIC LOVERS. I would not want to see either band go by the wayside. But the teaming of this dynamic duo has given quite the debut push for the LOVE IN CHAINS band. Without overselling it too much, I was pretty blown away by how much I liked the Everyday Heroes album! It is chock full of hard driving melodic hard rock that will have you recalling the glory of the past while being firmly fixed in the here and now. This is just prime rock and roll!
4.7 Out Of 5.0
