Hailing from Cleveland, formed by experienced guitar player Mike Floros (SteelCity, Wildcat) and lead singer Rob Kane from Apocalyptic Lovers, LOVE IN CHAINS pleasantly surprised us a couple years ago with their strong debut album. If you’re into the ’80s Melodic Hard Rock scene type of sound, this is a band you need to hear.
Now LOVE IN CHAINS is releasing ”The Rust Belt EP”, honoring artists and music from the revered Great Lakes Area – yeah, the band does 6 covers of great ’80s tunes from the likes of Beau Coup (an awesome version of their luxury song ‘Born & Raised’), ‘Voodoo’ (Michael Stanley Band), ‘Ah! Leah!’ (Donnie Iris), and more.
Of course, no album of its kind would be complete without a fresh take on Ian Hunter’s anthemic “Cleveland Rocks!”
With both Mike and Rob “Born and Raised” in Youngstown, Ohio, they-along with the rest of the band decided to pay homage to artists that were from the area or music that was inspired by it.
Northeast Ohio and Northwestern Pennsylvania well represented, “The Rust Belt” EP will feature music from bands like Beau Coup, Donnie Iris and the Cruisers, & Michael Stanley Band. Music from Youngstown natives White Noise (melodic rock song ‘Rescue Me’) and the Bell brothers (Kool and the Gang’s song ‘Misled’) also made the cut.
Of course, there’s a fun cover of Ian Hunter’s “Cleveland Rocks!” – Hunter is English-born, but wrote this anthem of a city for which he had some affection, and is seen as a de facto anthem in Cleveland, Ohio.
This is pure ’80s folks – all these songs were written from the very late Seventies to the Eighties, and LOVE IN CHAINS have done a very good job. A very cool mini-album while the band works on the next CD.
Highly Recommended
01 - Cleveland Rocks
02 - Born & Raised
03 - Misled
04 - Ah! Leah!
05 - Voodoo
06 - Rescue Me
Love In Chains – The Rust Belt EP 2024