KHYMERA
“Hold Your Ground”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

Khymera are a melodic rock band from Italy formed in 2003, featuring Pink Cream 69 founder Dennis Ward on vocals and bass. Dennis has appeared on five of the bands albums – joining a couple of years after Khymera’s self titled debut album was released. The band have forged a reputation as one of Europe’s finest melodic rock bands – and with their latest album ‘Hold Your Ground’ (released in 2023) that reputation is about to get even stronger…

…with eleven hard hitting songs over a punchy forty minutes – bringing AOR and melodic rock together as one! And with a title fit for a ballad ‘Don’t Wait For Love’ is most definitely not a ballad, opening the album with an incredible weighty punch! A punch that endlessly pummels the senses – in a good way! Khymera getting their new album off to a sparkling start, punching even harder with ‘Firestarter’ – a rumbling thunderstorm of head nod ability! And foot tap ability too – me just making up all kinds of phrases now! Spell checker is not my friend at the moment – but I don’t care when the music is this good. I’ll write what I want, when I want…

…the band moving on with just as much punch as the album began with – ‘Hear Me Calling’ featuring a much more melodious intent than either of the two opening songs. Dennis has a silky smooth voice that would grace any of the great AOR albums of the eighties – Khymera a couple of decades late, would have made a ginormous impact in the development of AOR and rock as a whole. The energy and oomph of ‘Hold Your Ground’ has been extremely high, and shows no sign of dipping either, ‘Sail On Forever’ rocking back and forth like a ship at sea. The swagger and head held high attitude is magnificent, with every song heard so far engaging and attractive. And now the energy and oomph takes a bit of a back seat – ‘Our Love Is Killing Me’ opening with a wonderful keyboard intro that had me thinking I’ve heard this before! Not really recognising it straightaway, it was only at the seventeen second mark when I started singing “I hear the ticking of the clock” that I recognised it – ‘Alone’ by American rock band Heart (from their 1987 album ‘Bad Animals’). The similarity of that opening short intro is astounding – but as ‘Our Love Is Killing Me’ progresses, it does take on an identity of its own, with only very light touches of Heart’s iconic song remaining.

The punch, energy and oomph return en masse for ‘Hear What I’m Saying’, a head noddingly addictive stomp of classic melodic rock come AOR! There’s been plenty of melodic rock albums in recent years – a significant resurgence really – with Khymera’s latest effort easily standing shoulder to shoulder with each and every one of ’em. And that includes recent albums from the bands Frontiers Music label mates T3NORS, Arctic Rain, Perfect Plan, and The Big Deal. There’s just so much great rock around at the moment – ‘Hold Your Ground’ moving on with a party feel courtesy of ‘Believe In What You Want’. A summer party on a beach somewhere hot, unlike the view through my window of a dark, cold and cloudy evening with drizzling rain adding discomfort to discontent! But hey, not to worry, cause ‘Believe In What You Want’ is here to plant a smile a mile wide on my face, and dream of that summers day. Cause believe me – summer is coming and my collection of rock albums for the beach party is just getting bigger and bigger! Picking up the tempo and pace, the band storm on with the hard rocking ‘On The Edge’ – and a feverish rhythm that’ll have many listeners banging their heads fairly hard.

‘Hold Your Ground’ is just getting better and better, with anthem after anthem bursting with energy – ‘Could Have Been Us’ whipping up a thunderstorm of heavy hitting proportions. The band punching just as hard now as when the album began, Khymera as fit as a butchers dog with plenty of energy to spare! Just imagine how breathless a Khymera gig is! Better stock up on supplies of oxygen right now – you may just need it! And with no sign of the energy level dropping, the band romp on with the galloping ‘Runaway’ – and the nearest the album has got to venturing into the heavy metal genre. It’s like ‘Hold Your Ground’ is sat poolside, dipping its toe in the water and saying “nope, not quite”, and retreating to the comfort of the sun-bed! And in what seems like no time at all, we arrive at the final song! Just where did the last forty minutes go? Rock heaven that’s where – the albums final hurrah another energetic gallop of scorching hot hard rock – ‘Am I Dreaming’ maintaining ‘Hold Your Ground’s recent upsurge in beef-ability!!! There you go spell checker, go stick that one where the sun don’t shine!

Overall, an album of hard rocking melodic rock come AOR, Khymera deliver an energy fuelled feast of fun.

TRACKLIST

Don’t Wait For Love
Firestarter
Hear Me Calling
Sail On Forever
Our Love Is Killing Me
Hear What I’m Saying
Believe In What You Want
On The Edge
Could Have Been Us
Runaway
Am I Dreaming

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