{"id":23854,"date":"2012-11-15T22:04:07","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T03:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=23854"},"modified":"2013-02-05T16:41:49","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T21:41:49","slug":"chasing-violets-outside-heaven-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/chasing-violets-outside-heaven-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing Violets | Outside Heaven<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Nikiforos Skoumas<\/span>
\n– Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"ChasingThose into melodic rock\/AOR would probably agree that the past five years have been a very exiting and rewarding period in the life of any fan of the genre; and surprises never cease. Hailing from France, Chasing Violets are the new force in female fronted melodic rock, brought to us by US-based label Perris Records. <\/p>\n

Chasing Violets are sisters Sarah and Melissa Fontaine joined by a cast of the usual AOR veterans including Frederick Slama, Robert Sall, Tommy Denander, Paul Sabu and Goran Edman amongst others. You would not be wrong to assume that Slama is the driving force behind Chasing Violets having written the majority of this debut album while tailoring it to the standards of the two female voices. Slama also produces the album, essentially bringing to front all the rocking aspects of AOR (distorted guitars, big drumming) while retaining that radio-friendly musical texture.<\/p>\n

Outside Heaven<\/em> -for the instrumental part- sounds like a mixture of Work of Art and Slama\u2019s AOR Project. The combination of guitars and keyboards is essential to the songwriting, masterfully harmonizing with the vocal melodies, being the main feat of Chasing Violets. Upon first play the two sisters sound vocally identical, sharing a similar tone and style that makes them almost indistinguishable on record. As with the AOR Project and Work of Art, Chasing Violets is primarily a song-oriented project; songwriting comes before performance so one should not expect over-the-top vocal performances or great amounts of guitar shredding. The girls deliver to the demands of each song rather than using the project as a vehicle to promote their technical abilities. <\/p>\n

The album opens on the subtle-melodic \u201cI Can\u2019t Love no More\u201d which perfectly lays the foreground for superior AOR tracks such as \u201cNo Margin For Error,\u201d \u201cThe Price to Pay,\u201d \u201cAbove Suspicion\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019re my Obsession\u201d which are bound to sound exciting even to the most experienced of melodic rock fans. Outside Heaven<\/em> is a remarkable AOR debut and one that firmly established the Fontaine sisters as a major force within the genre; one can clearly see the labels of the genre fighting over the rights for their follow up album.<\/p>\n

Genre: Melodic Rock, AOR<\/p>\n

Line up:
\nG\u00f6ran Edman: vocals – Philip Bardowell: vocals \u2013 Jerry Hludzik: vocals \u2013 Dane Donohue: vocals \u2013 Rick Riso: vocals \u2013 John Barbour: vocals \u2013 Tommy Denander: all Instruments \u2013 Paul Sabu: all instruments & vocals \u2013 Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Slama: guitars & keyboards \u2013 Christian Tolle: guitars & keyboards \u2013 Robert S\u00e4ll: guitars & keyboards \u2013 Joey Summer: guitars & keyboards \u2013 Michael Landau: guitars \u2013 Bruce Gaitsch: guitars \u2013 Colin Rodgers: guitars \u2013 Tim Manford: guitars \u2013 David Mark Pearce: guitars \u2013 Stefano Lionetti: guitars \u2013 Mario Percudani: guitars \u2013 Daniel Fontaine: guitars \u2013 Eric Ragno: keyboards \u2013 David Diggs: keyboards \u2013 Alessandro Del Vecchio: keyboards & vocals \u2013 Morris Adriaens: keyboards & vocals \u2013 Anna Portalupi: bass \u2013 Urban Danielsson: bass \u2013 Mike Baird: drums \u2013 Miri Miettinen: drums \u2013 Pierpaolo Monti: Drums \u2013 Herman Furin: drums \u2013 Pat Thern: drums \u2013 Sacha Spiegel: drums<\/p>\n

Track List:
\n1. I Can’t Love No More
\n2. No Margin For Error
\n3. The Price To Pay
\n4. When The Darkness Falls
\n5. Voices In The Wind
\n6. Above Suspicion
\n7. Outside Heaven
\n8. Hold Back The Dawn
\n9. No One’s Gonna Hurt Me Anymore
\n10. A Hole In Paradise
\n11. You’re My Obsession
\n12. Cease Fire
\n13. Just Wanna Be Your Heroin<\/p>\n

Label: Perris Records<\/p>\n

Web: http:\/\/www.chasingviolets.fr\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrockhaven rating: 8.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Nikiforos Skoumas – Columnist — Those into melodic rock\/AOR would probably agree that the past five years have been a very exiting and rewarding period in the life of any fan of the genre; […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6772],"tags":[6454,1605,2901,6455,981,3594],"class_list":{"0":"post-23854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcrvws2012","7":"tag-chasing-violets","8":"tag-goran-edman","9":"tag-melodic-rock","10":"tag-outside-heaven","11":"tag-perris-records","12":"tag-tommy-denander"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}