HEAVENS EDGE – Heavens Edge [Rock Candy Remastered +3 bonus] 2010, MP3+FLAC , Scans

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One of the most underrated and most awesome bands emerged from the late ’80s US scene was without a doubt HEAVENS EDGE. This Rock Candy remastered reissue of their self-titled debut truly makes justice to this terrific album, including 3 bonus tracks.

Who is to blame when you have a great high quality record being released on a major label, but somehow it doesn’t become the success it was destined for? Well, it happened to a lot of bands during the period 1987 – 1991. The problem becomes inevitable with so many new releases in the market that a lot of acts are being overlooked.
So many great bands were dropped by their recording labels after just one album and now several years later most of these releases are being held as Classics in the Melodic Rock and AOR genre.
A fine example is the 1990 debut album of Pennsylvania based Heavens Edge.

These guys had it all and could have easily followed the footsteps of White Lion, Dokken or Bon Jovi, but changes within their recording label organization (Columbia) made it impossible to achieve their fifteen minutes of fame.
Heavens Edge did record more stuff and played live like any other band, but eventually after Grunge had crushed into the music world it was all too late and the band gave up the ghost.

Renowned British producer Neil Kernon (Dokken, Queensryche, Autograph, etc) was tapped to produce, resulting in a bumper selection of loud and proud melodic hard rock anthems such as ‘Bad Reputation’, ‘Skin to Skin’, the kick-ass ‘Can’t Catch Me’ and the superb ‘Come Play the Game” should have been smash hits on FM rock radio and MTV.

There’s a killer midtempo in ‘Find Another Way’ with some AOR touches, while ‘Hold On to Tonight’ is a fantastic pure ’80s ballad.
All tracks that are easily comparable to their contemporaries bringing to mind a delicious blend of Bon Jovi, Ratt and Dokken; fiery melodic rock with a finger firmly on the trigger all wrapped up in production to die for.

This “Heavens Edge” digital remastering by Rock Candy sounds picture perfect, also making you wonder what went wrong, because this band should have been massive and enjoy the same success as for example Warrant, Trixter and Firehouse in and around 1990.
An album that is full hooks galore, Melodic Hard Rock at its very best plenty of crunching but catchy guitars in every song, superb sing-along choruses that grab you on the first listen, and huge layered backing vocals.
Additionally, you have 3 bonus tracks, songs recorded by Heavens Edge for a second that never was.
A MANDATORY album in your US Melodic Hard Rock collection.

01 – Intro
02 – Play Dirty
03 – Skin To Skin
04 – Find Another Way
05 – Up Against The Wall
06 – Hold On To Tonight
07 – Can’t Catch Me
08 – Bad Reputation
09 – Daddy’s Little Girl
10 – Is That All You Want?
11 – Come Play The Game
12 – Don’t Stop, Don’t Go
BONUS TRACKS;
13 – Superstition
14 – U Got It
15 – Just Another Fire

Mark Evans - lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar
Reggie Wu - guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Steven Parry - guitar, slide guitar, backing vocals
G. G. Guidotti - bass, backing vocals
David Rath - drums, percussion
Rob Rizzo - keyboards
Terry Brock, Larry Baud - backing vocals

MP3 FLAC