Whoever remembers Swedish Power Metal warriors Lost Horizon will probably find some 'taste' in this one. Lost Horizon delivered two albums - A Flame To The Ground Beneath (2003) and Awakening The World (2001) - in their career (so far? - is this band still active?) and many Euro-friendly Power metalheads applauded their fast 'approach' towards Heavy Metal. Heed are not irrelevant to the aforementioned band, since...
...they were 'born' in 2004 after singer Daniel Heiman and guitarist Fredrik Olsson decided to quit from Lost Horizon. They both had a vision of creating heavier music, but still with melodic vocals, reads a posting at Heed's official site. Drummer Mats Karlsson was the one to join the band; a familiar colleague since he had played with Lost Horizon on a Spanish tour. Signing to the Bohus Entertainment label they recorded two songs and the response was good. The bass 'position' was filled with Jorgen Olsson. And in March 2005 the band records four more songs. It is unclear - to me - if both Karlsson and Olsson are still with the band, since I find out that new members are enlisted from now on; still, let's walk by the book and proceed to the main 'dish'.
The debut album from Heed - The Call - can be described as the natural 'extension' of Lost Horizon's A Flame To The Ground Beneath. Heiman carries on the high-pitched singing featuring lots of growls (and a couple of 'distortions'), but now he seems to care a little bit more for melody in his voice. Apart from a Swedish Ralf Sheepers 'clone', he sometimes brings Roy Khan (Kamelot, ex-Conception) to mind. This ties well with Olsson's guitar playing, since he's rather dedicated to 'exchange' sharp up-to-date riffs with sweet leads. Rather interesting this can be in tunes like e.g. Tears Of Prodigy (Fallen Angel).
The tunes themselves are too keen on mixing the despair of Conception/Kamelot with the ambiance of e.g. Evergrey and the traditional German/Scandinavian riff-full Metal frenzy. The production, done by Tobias Lindell, is 'heavy' and is a 'plus' to the whole effort. The musicianship is rather 'solid' and some choir refrains here and the there are anyway suitable. The songwriting itself should not be something groundbreaking, though...
The Call is a good debut for a - in general - Euro power Metal album. For the fans with likes that span around Germany or Scandinavia, in specific, this is a rather notable purchase. Imagine Edguy being more 'heavy', multiply to Kai Hansen's legacy in these lands, divide with the money you got available for CDs this month and read the result.