Harem Scarem
Karma Cleansing

If there's one thing I can't stand about rockers and metalheads (of which I'm a part), it's the lack of open-mindedness: meaning that Metallica should forever make "Master Of Puppets," Megadeth "Rust In Peace," and... Harem Scarem "Mood Swings"! Know that people (and music groups) evolve over time! And when they make good albums, we can't always complain and say "Yuck, this sucks, it's not like X or Y!" Unfortunately, most of the time that's exactly what happens: we end up not considering great albums that have been left forgotten.

In fact, Harem Scarem found themselves needing to recover from the blunder with "Voice Of Reason". Gionet, who had an appointment with Cesare Ragazzi, was no longer part of the band after the studio sessions, but this problem was quickly resolved with the addition of Barry Donaghy on bass. In 1996, however, Scarem released "Live In Japan" to try to appease the angry fans! But the problem was to find a new dimension, especially musically. And to be honest, the Canadian group, with their fourth album "Karma Cleansing," dated 1997, rediscovered a vitality they had lost for some time, but with a completely different album (again!) not necessarily tied to current trends. A little curiosity: In Japan it was released as "Believe", with two different songs in the track-list: "Staying Away" sung by Darren Smith and the instrumental "Baby With A Nail Gun".

"Karma Cleansing" once again sounds hard rock, with great melodies and touches of modern rock, Beatles-like pop influences, and entirely new instrumental solutions with Harry Hess finally back to singing and Lesperance back to roaring. Barry Donaghy also makes a good contribution and finally, Darren Smith feels less restrained than before. The songs are therefore much more natural and less forced, simpler in their writing and very catchy at certain points. Let's move on to the usual track-by-track analysis.

We start with the magnificent "Karma Cleansing": a perfect intro, with keyboard and drums blending, immediately giving way to Lesperance with a truly spot-on guitar riff and Hess finally as inspired as before: a great start! This is followed by "Cages", perhaps a slightly more ordinary song but played on a good rhythmic foundation and with a nice guitar solo. "Hail, Hail" is an incredible semi-ballad, beautiful in its interplay between keyboards at the beginning, drums in the middle, and then the explosion of Lesperance's guitar: a truly beautiful piece with nothing else to add, played on a winning rhythmic solution! The Beatles influences are evident in "Morning Grey", an unusual piece for Scarem, but one played on melodies with a big impact. We reach the middle of the album with the rocky and beautiful "Die Off Hard", which shows us how Scarem are incredibly in sync and have an incredible chemistry between them: Hess interprets superbly, Lesperance phrases brilliantly with the guitar, Donaghy makes the song more sustained, and Smith decorates it all, giving it his all behind the drums. Another wonderful ballad is the next "Rain" made of just acoustic guitar, keyboard, and voice: Hess truly does his best work here. The only weak point is the following track, "I Won't Be There", which is quite an ordinary song, saved only by Lesperance's good solo. Like a blow to the teeth comes "Victim Of Fate", a threatening song supported by Donaghy's bass at the beginning and continues with a great Lesperance opening to a spine-tingling hard rock, along with an excellent melody and chorus insertion: another simply fantastic song! It ends with the driving "Believe", a very interesting song with a punk beginning but equipped with a great melodic opening and with "The Mirror", a slow song that doesn't add anything spectacular and is rather ordinary.

The debut and "Mood Swings" days, in my opinion, should remain just a memory: with this album and the following one especially, the 4 Canadians will find new vitality and it's worth saying that both "Karma Cleansing" and "Big Bang Theory" (1998) remain very current and fresh even 12-13 years later, which really says a lot about the proposal and the beauty of the songs presented by Harem Scarem, not just any random stuff, eh?