LEVERAGE – Tides

“Fifteen Years” starts this album off with a soft, hauntingly beautiful piano piece, then bursts into mind-blowing guitars right off the bat to get your blood pumping! Add to that the awesome vocals of Pekka and you are left hoping that the rest of the album will deliver with the same great music.

Track number three “Horizon” really gives you a chance to appreciate the diversity of Leverage. You already know that they can produce a rocker, but this song shows that they can deliver on a great ballad as well and still maintain the heaviness in the guitars, combining awesome lyrics and all the elements for which this band is known.

Track number four “Dreamworld” has a wonderful Nightwish tone to it, and that will excite a lot of music listeners! Imagine an angel taking you by the hand and leading you to another world, a dream world, beyond anything you’ve ever conceived, where the old become young and the dead return to life; you want to become part of this world, see what they see and hear what they hear. A great song!

Track number six “Stranger” — what a beautiful song! Gorgeous acoustic and electric guitar — Tuomas and Torsti really give it their all! The guitar solo in this song is equally as beautiful and it makes you really feel what they are trying to convey. There is an obvious connection between two people that used to be friends and through wrong choices, actions, and words, this person is now a stranger. How true in real life this is.

”Marching To War,” track number eight, starts off with a great marching drum beat that gives one the illusion of troops marching off to war. This song has very strong lyrics in that soldiers, no matter what country, do what they’re told. They follow orders, for their holy cause and people die for that cause. Marko is amazing with the keyboards and all of the musical elements really come together for this song.

”Waterfall,” number eleven, again has that great Nightwish feel to it, especially in the keyboards. This is actually a bonus track on the Japanese release. It’s just got a great rockin’ sound, and even at the end of the album you are still getting the great quality and quantity that you were hoping for at the beginning. Tides definitely delivers and gives you everything (and more) that this great band Leverage has to offer. You’ll definitely want to add this to your collection!