{"id":30312,"date":"2013-06-19T22:03:31","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T03:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=30312"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:36:16","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:36:16","slug":"chasing-violets-jade-hearts-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/chasing-violets-jade-hearts-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing Violets | Jade Hearts<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Joe Mis<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"CHASINGVIOLETS\"Jade Hearts is the solid second release from France\u2019s Chasing Violets \u2013 and it is a dynamic and upbeat radio-friendly album. Fronted by sisters Sarah & M\u00e9lissa Fontaine \u2013 and ably supported by AOR\u2019s Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Slama – Chasing Violets has again brought together a number of well-known names from the melodic rock \/ metal world to produce a CD with infectious riffs, sing-along choruses, and toe-tapping rhythm lines. While still upbeat and positive, Jade Hearts<\/em> displays a bit more grit and has a slightly harder edge than the band\u2019s 2012 debut, Outside Heaven.<\/p>\n

The list of performers is impressive. Besides the songwriting and production skills of Slama, Jade Hearts boasts contributions from Tommy Denander (House of Lords, Alice Cooper, Paul Stanley), Paul Sabu (Kidd Glove, Sabu), G\u00f6ran Edman (Yngwie Malmsteen, John Norum), Mikael Erlandsson (Last Autumn’s Dream), Christian Tolle (AOR, Bangalore Choir), Eric Ragno, Alessandro Del Vecchio and many others. The production values are high, allowing all of these diverse performers to sound their best.<\/p>\n

The Fontaine sisters are solid rock singers with strong and expressive voices. While not generating huge amounts of power or covering massive ranges, they both have clear voices that carry a good deal of emotion, and as expected they work very well together. The tracks are well-structured and quite catchy for the most part.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Main Attraction\u201d starts off with an 80s-style keyboard opening and settles into a very nice pop-rock groove with interesting layered vocals. G\u00f6ran Edman lends his recognizable tone to the harder edged \u201cWeb Of Lies,\u201d and Tommy Denander\u2019s guitars make this one of the strongest tracks on the release. \u201cA Shot In The Dark\u201d seems to have a bit of a Deep Purple feel to it, but the vocals seem a bit unbalanced and uneven on this track, as if the Fontaines were trying to match the natural rasp of Bob Harris. \u201cSilent Victory\u201d is a slick modern rock masterpiece with a driving bass line and great duet vocals, while \u201cDeception In Heaven\u201d is a simpler, slower track that builds into a sweeping epic thanks to tidy guitars contributed by a number of musicians. Paul Sabu does it all as he backs up the Fontaines on the catchy commercial rocker \u201cJade Hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSecrets In The Shadows\u201d is a poppy, radio ready track with a rolling rhythm line, but an overly long outro guitar solo (a spectacular one, but a bit much for such a commercial sounding track). \u201cHollow Triumph\u201d is another solid rocker with strong harmony vocals throughout. Big bass drives the melancholy \u201cExile In Sadness,\u201d while \u201cThe Scarlet Nymph\u201d floats along on a soft and gentle vocal line. \u201cHalo Of Light\u201d is a well-done harder edged rocker with a strong rhythm line in old Journey style, perhaps influenced by Neal Schon\u2019s guitars. The album wraps with the hard rocker \u201cI Owe It to Myself,\u201d a track with a cool, old-school feel to it, and a hooky sing-along chorus.<\/p>\n

One of the few criticisms of Jade Hearts<\/em> is simply that at times it seems to be almost \u201cAOR-by-number,\u201d giving the album a somewhat formulaic feel. A bit more diversity in tone and tempo would go a long way in displaying the true talents of the Fontaine sisters. A simple acoustic ballad (surprisingly, there are no acoustic tracks on the album) or a gritty, dark hard rocker would make the album more interesting.<\/p>\n

If you are looking for something on the lighter side, you can\u2019t go wrong with Jade Hearts. Fans of melodic rock with a modern touch will enjoy the sounds of Chasing Violets, and anyone who enjoys radio or arena rock will appreciate the many influences of some of the greats of the genre \u2013 Journey, Survivor, Heart, etc. Sexy and sensuous, upbeat and accessible, the melodic music of Chasing Violets has broad appeal, and rightly so. While not a perfect album, Jade Hearts<\/em> is very good, and highly recommended.<\/p>\n

Genre: Modern Melodic Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nSarah Fontaine (lead \/ backing vocals)
\nM\u00e9lissa Fontaine (lead \/ backing vocals)<\/p>\n

Guests: Rick Riso (vocals on 1, 7, 9, 11); G\u00f6ran Edman (vocals on 2); Bob Harris (vocals on 3); Mikael Erlandsson (vocals on 8); Tommy Denander (all instruments on 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11); Paul Sabu (all instruments & backing vocals on 6); Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Slama (guitars on 2); Carmine Martone (guitars on 3);
\nChristian Tolle (guitars on 5, 10 , 12 & bass on 12); David Mark Pearce (guitars on 5, 10); Linkan Andersson (guitars on 5, 10); Stefano Lionetti (guitars on 5); Mario Percudani (guitars on 5); Anna Portalupi (bass on 3); Ken Sandin (bass on 5); Sacha Spiegel (drums on 5, 10, 12); Pat Thern (drums on 2, 7, 8); Alessandro Del Vecchio (keyboards on 3, 12, drums on 3, backing vocals on 12); Eric Ragno (keyboards on 5, 10); Colin Rodgers (keyboards on 7)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tThe Main Attraction
\n2.\tWeb Of Lies
\n3.\tA Shot In The Dark
\n4.\tSilent Victory
\n5.\tDeception In Heaven
\n6.\tJade Hearts
\n7.\tSecrets In The Shadows
\n8.\tHollow Triumph
\n9.\tExile In Sadness
\n10.\tThe Scarlet Nymph
\n11.\tHalo Of Light
\n12.\tI Owe It to Myself<\/p>\n

Label: AOR Records<\/p>\n

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

Hardrock Haven rating: 8 \/ 10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Joe Mis – Senior Columnist — Jade Hearts is the solid second release from France\u2019s Chasing Violets \u2013 and it is a dynamic and upbeat radio-friendly album. Fronted by sisters Sarah & M\u00e9lissa Fontaine […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[336,6454,7487,5926,334],"class_list":{"0":"post-30312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-cd","9":"tag-chasing-violets","10":"tag-jade-hearts","11":"tag-modern-melodic-rock","12":"tag-review"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30312","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=30312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}