When H.E.A.T.’s debut album appeared in 2008 it kicked new life into the Melodic Rock genre and proved it was no longer reliant on the Elder Statesman such as Journey to supply us with quality music – this group of Swedish upstarts showed us that the Kids Wanna Rock too, and delivered an album full of upbeat melodic anthems.  They would go on to be one of the hottest bands of the year.  And as the previous sentence demonstrates, their name also provides us with some cheesy puns – count ‘em!  H.E.A.T.’s popularity has gone from strength to strength, resulting in an unprecedented 3rd appearance in a row at this year’s Firefest, on the Friday pre-show (warm-up?)

With sophomore release ’Freedom Rock’ upon us, will H.E.A.T. have changed their sound?  Well, after fifteen seconds of opener ‘We’re Gonna Make It To The End’ it’s pretty apparent that they haven’t!  This is a huge melodic anthem with an enormous chorus, and sets the tone for the rest of the album.  The upbeat songs, catchy melodies, singalong choruses, scorching guitar solos and perfect harmonies are still intact, and are probably even bigger and better than before!

But it’s not just a carbon copy of the debut, there are some new touches thrown into the simmering pot to stir things up a bit.  There’s an injection of pace to first single ‘Beg Beg Beg’ and the searing ‘High On Love’ with it’s fiery riff, and a new style lyrically with ‘Danger Road’ and the Whitesnake sounding ‘Black Night.’ There’s some acoustic guitar too, on the intro to ‘Cast Away’, and it’s used in tandem with the electric guitar to great effect on the fantastic ‘Who Will Stop The Rain’, bringing to mind the mighty Tyketto.  However, there are still plenty of singalong anthems such as ‘Stay’, the slow-burning ‘Everybody Wants To Be Someone’, ‘Nobody Loves You (Like I Do)’ and ‘I Know What It Takes’, and a great ballad in ‘Shelter.’  Thirteen tracks, and not a dud in sight.

Once again it’s time to Feel The H.E.A.T., and the temperature has soared!