Harem Scarem
Voice Of Reason

Year of grace (or disgrace?) 1995: almost all (or most) of the bands in the hard rock scene (from melodic to street) will fall into a deep crisis, either breaking up or adapting to the trendy pro-grunge tide. And unfortunately, we must admit it, even Harem Scarem with "Voice Of Reason", dated 1995, will fall into it.

There is very little left of the AOR beauty of the first album and the "elegant" solidity of the masterpiece Mood Swings, although there are some interesting elements nonetheless. Mike Gionet (bass) has now lost his hair and even Cesare Ragazzi can't save him, Harry Hess (voice/almost non-existent keyboards) now sings a faded version of Alice In Chains, Pete Lesperance (guitar) now gets lost in tuning the guitar to low tones like Nirvana and Darren Smith... just limits himself to keeping the beat I guess! In fact, Harem Scarem in Voice Of Reason, sound very dark, with choirs taking a shape more akin in some parts to Queen (even though the comparison is quite forced and in many songs the attempt will not quite succeed) and blatantly grunge (sigh sigh sob sob give me the tissues!!!!). Track-by-track as usual.

It starts with "Voice Of Reason": as already mentioned, a heavy riff à la Black Sabbath introduces the song and continues incessantly in its darkness, with slow interludes like Alice In Chains (almost with the same little choirs), up to the melodic break, which makes it decidedly more appealing: a good song overall; then comes "Blue", a slightly more interesting song, although there is always that dark aura around even Lesperance's own guitar, which manages to save itself with a good solo. It should be noted that there is, however, a greater (albeit timid) melodic opening. The next track is one of the best on the album namely "Warming A Frozen Rose": this time, the band uses something of the old past to create a properly paced song, crafted and refined, which, despite showing a certain sadness in its progress, manages to create a good effect. Very dull instead is "Let It Go" which, despite a decent solo does not save itself as a song, as it is quite out of place and lacking direction. In the same vein is "And That's All", which shows an absurd lack of motivation in composing the song! These last two songs lack punch and don't leave a mark, the band seems unmotivated and the album seems to have taken a bad turn. A slight sign of recovery, however, comes with the excellent "Breathing Sand", which finally highlights a more decisive vocal interpretation by Hess and excellent guitar work by Lesperance. Very standard, but saved by a good chorus, "Candle", in which Lesperance (and also the rest of the group) make a reference to Soundgarden and similar bands. Finally follows a faster song from a punk perspective and less slow in its impact, namely "The Paint Thins", sure it doesn’t have the hard rock impact of Saviors Never Cry or Had Enough, but we can settle since it will be one of the last interesting elements of this record. The record alternates with the decent "I'll be brief", which however never takes off as it should (or at least that's the impression it gives), the dreadful "Untouched" which seems to be there just as filler, and the concluding ballad, albeit very sweet (but still sad, worse than an episode of Sweet Remy!) "Necessary Evil". A little gem comes with the Japanese version of Voice Of Reason, which contains an acoustic version (even better than the original!) of "Candle", part of the same record.

The final impression is that we are facing an uncertain album, not successful in all its transitions, and in which the truly advantageous points are decidedly few. Overall, however, as a misstep it's not bad: as a whole, the album isn't bad but sometimes it’s really hard to digest in full. Thankfully, this will be one of the few low points for the Scarem. After the departure of Mike Gionet (leaving right after the studio sessions for this record), Barry Donaghy will join, with whom the Scarem will bring to life the good "Karma Cleansing" and the excellent "Big Bang Theory".