Harem Scarem are band that, in years gone by, were a particular favourite of this reviewer. Their first three albums are classic slices of melodic rock at its best (Harem Scarem, Mood Swings and Voice Of Reason.) However subsequent to this trio of albums the band became less melodic rock and moved more into an alt/pop vein that culminated with a change of identity as the band metamorphisized into an outfit called Rubber. The last couple of albums, released via the Frontiers label, luckily have seen the band regaining the Harem Scarem identity and returning somewhat to form and then I first heard this new album Overload and, to put it bluntly,  I was distinctly under whelmed.  But as the saying goes  patience is a virtue and my patience with Overload has, to an extent, paid off. 

It took a good five or six listens for this album to start making sense at all, it certainly isn't an instant album however,  in anyway shape or form with perhaps the exception of one or two tracks. The lyrics are also rather on the 'weighty' side  and I suspect that  either Harry Hess or Peter Lesperance has recently gone through through some troubled times leading to the lyrical content or the record as a whole.

Opener Dagger is a heavy and melodic track and at times very aggressive. This is followed up by Afterglow  which is perhaps the most instant track on the album and was first featured on the free CD distributed to punters at the recent Firefest and with good reason as it sounds like an outtake from the Weight Of The World album and is slightly out of kilter with the rest of Overload  which in general is much darker sounding.

Third track in is Rise & Fall, a song that utilizes a  particularly heavy sound and a quick look at the preview on another famous website reveals the reason Peter Lesperance has used a baritone guitar on a lot of this album. (For those who do not know, a baritone guitar is guitar tuned between a standard guitar tuning and a standard bass tuning and thus sounds heavier. Jack Bruce used to use a Baritone guitar as a bass during is time with Cream). The actual track is reminiscent for some reason of Soundgarden circa their Black Hole Sun era

Don't Come Easy  Is very obviously Harem Scarem in its delivery and sounds like it was taken off Voice of Reason, not a bad thing as VOR is very underrated albumin this reviewers humble opinion. Next up is the first real ballad on Overload in the shape of Can't Live With You which again reminds one of Soundgarden, whereas Forgive & Forget , whilst being another another heavy track featuring intense drumming from Creighton Doane  goes all powerpop on you.
 
All Your Getting Is piano lead Queen sounding ballad and then Leading Me On starts off  like another ballad before Peter Lesperanece lets rip with a massive guitar sound and the song just grows and grows and changes pace quite a lot. Understand You is an acoustic ballad complete with big harmony vocals and is very Def Leppard in feel, circa the X period of that particular band. Then we have Same Mistakes which could very well be another outtake form the VOR sessions by the sound of it and incorporates an odd time signature, but is actually quite a decent song. Rounding out overload is Wishing which once again is a very dark ballad type track and apparently featured on the Japanese edition of Harem Sacrem's previous album. 

So there we have it. overload, by today's standards  is a relatively short album and although not as instant as some of the band's previous output is most definitely a  grower and just  goes to prove that some albums take time before you can actually review them objectively. As of this moment overload gets a 6.5/10,  not bad but probably not for all Harem Scarem fans out there,  but if you like VOA you may very well like this. Ask me in another couple of weeks though and the review may be totally different!!!!

Let us know your views on 'Overload'

Track List

Dagger
Afterglow
Rise And Fall
Don't Come Easy
Can't Live With You
Forgive & Forget
All You're Getting
Leading me on
Understand you
Same Mistakes
Wishing

Line Up

Harry Hess - Vocals
Pete Lesperance - Guitars,
Creighton Doane - Drums
Barry Donaghy - Bass