H.E.A.T. – Welcome To The Future

Just a few months ago the band played before an enthusiastic crowd at the Hard Circle festivals in Germany, where they rocked the stage with an energetic live show and the charismatic presence of Kenny Leckremo their singer who returned in 2020 after a ten year break from the band. Now the Swedes welcome us to the future with their eighth studio album.

A Little Bit Of History

H.E.A.T. was founded in 2007 and supported Toto on their Tour, the first studio album was recorded and released in 2008. Immediately, they were celebrated in their home country as best newcomer by a domestic radio station and played festivals, one of them being the prestigious Sweden Rock. The following year they participated in the Swedish qualifier competition to the Eurovision Song Contest where they made it to the final round. In 2010, Kenny Leckremo left the band who released four more albums with singer Erik Grönwall before Kenny returned. Welcome To The Future is the second album after the reunification with their original singer.

Style

Sweden brought us a plethora of rock and metal bands, most of them either Death Metal oder Melodic Metal. H.E.A.T. is one of the latter. Even in 2008, whey they released their debut album H.e.a.t., the band sounded like they were a little late to the party, like, twenty years too late. The plushy hard rock sound would not have been out of place in the end of they eighties and still the band is true to its roots and continuous to serve us popous, melody-driven songs designed to be played loud and sung even louder by the listener, the style that sounds like sun, highway and convertible cars, long hair and cosmetic products, cheesy videos and scantily clad californian Ladies. Oh, and not to forget corny lyrics. Those were the days.

Fast Forward To 2025

Even though it is an old style, good, handmade Melodic Rock and AOR never really goes out of fashion. That seems to be the underlying principle of Welcome To The Future and, old fashioned or not, the truth is that the style does still work, indeed. What divides a good AOR band from a bad one? The singer. In this department H.E.A.T. has a master of his craft manning the microphone, Kenny is indeed up there in the premier league of rock singers. What can go wrong when the compository skills of the band can come up with ear-flattering rockers in the vein of Bon Jovi or Black ‘n’ Blue like “Running To You” or a little Journey infusion in “The End”, even some Europe-pomp shines through in “In Disguise”. The fact that most songs don’t extent beyond the four-minute-mark is a plus, too, something that is not always a strength of AOR bands.

But while the rest of the album is pretty much of equal quality and delivers a high quality Melodic Rock and Metal album there is one exception, one that might lead the the first time listener on the wrong track. The opener and first single “Disaster” is absolutely Heavy Metal, somewhere between between modern bands like Dynazty or Beast in Black and old Axel Rudi Pell or anything with Doogie White on the microphone. It is a pity that it is the only track in this vein, an occasional infusion of heaviness would probably not have harmed the overall album, maybe to replace the one song that after several spins does not hold up as well as the other eleven compositions, “Tear It Down (R.N.R.R.)”.

Old Becomes New

The target audience is pretty well defined, one would not be yelled at if one ventured a guess that at least 40 and up is the correct age for the rockers to be found in front of their stage, the ones that don’t get a rash from grandiose keyboards and don’t mind another record of that style in their collection because what worked then, works today, even if it basically means more of the same. Welcome To The Future is a timeless statement of melody and rock, nothing less, nothing more. Apart from the opener “Disaster” several other tunes are potential hits so with a little nostalgia in one’s heart album number eight is worth to listen to and turn up the H.E.A.T..

Here is the video to “Disaster”:

Album Tracklist

1. Disaster
2. Bad Time For Love
3. Running To You
4. Call My Name
5. In Disguise
6. The End
7. Rock Bottom
8. Children Of The Storm
9. Losing Game
10. Paradise Lost
11. Tear It Down (R.N.R.R.)
12. We Will Not Forget

Band Lineup

Jimmy Jay – bass guitar, backing vocals
Jona Tee – keyboards, backing vocals
Don Crash – drums, backing vocals
Dave Dalone – guitar, backing vocals
Kenny Leckremo – lead vocals, acoustic guitar