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HAREM SCAREM “Chasing Euphoria”
HAREM SCAREM “Chasing Euphoria”
By Colonel Angus
I can’t believe it has been over three decades since I first was introduced to these Canadian melodic rockers. My first foray into their catalogue was “Mood Swings” in 1993 and I have been a fan ever since. The only disk that didn’t really do it for me was the one where they changed their name to RUBBER back in the late 90s and early 2000s. Other than that, these guys can basically do no wrong in my book. Must be a Canadian things because RUSH and TRIUMPH are also that way for me. Anyway, it has been five years since the great “Change the World” record and after a few spins, this one is just as good as that release which says a lot since that one was awesome.
We start off with the title track and it is a slice of pure melodic rock magic. It is an instant classic from the first guitar riffs and it contains one of those choruses that will have you humming for weeks. Harry Hess still sounds as good as he did on those earlier releases without losing any of the power from those golden pipes. Switching gears a little, “Better The Devil You Know” has this cool RICHARD MARX “Rush Street” vibe that fits in with their material on “Mood Swings”. Again, there is so much melody dripping from these tracks that you can’t help getting them stuck in your head. Total earworm territory for sure.
Things get a little faster for the ironically titled “Slow Burn”. The tempo makes this tune rock more than the previous two pieces but it still keeps that sense of melody throughout. The stomping “Gotta Keep Your Head Up” contains this great guitar riff courtesy of Pete Lesperance that has this early 90s melodic rock swagger. Throughout this record, Lesperance has shown himself to be a guitar force to be reckoned with as he come up with riff after riff that ooze melody yet still manage to rock. Plus, his solos fit the tracks perfectly without overplaying almost telling a story within themselves. “World On Fire” is the ballad on “Chasing Euphoria” and while I’m not a big ballad fan, there are certain bands that do them right and HAREM SCAREM is one of those bands. They manage to construct a ballad without falling into sappy territory that other bands fall into. It still is not one of my favorite tunes on the record but it is certainly good enough for me not to skip.
The slow burn (no pun intended) of “Bad Way” builds into one of the catchiest choruses on the disk. It is these types of songs that HAREM SCAREM excel at and luckily for us, this album is full of them. The first single “Reliving History” has all the hallmarks of classic HAREM SCAREM with melodic verses and a soaring chorus wrapped up in catchy riff. This song is a great example of where Lesperance uses some restrain in the solo and it works so well. The albums hard rocker is definitely “A Falling Knife” with Hess adopting a rawer style to fit the material better. There is still plenty of that melodic rock that the band is famous for but they will occasionally slip into something with a little edge to it making “A Falling Knife” the perfect track to play live.
HAREM SCAREM finish off this album with “Understand It All” and “Wasted Years” (not to be confused with the IRON MAIDEN classic) with the former being another slice of melodic rock mastery while the latter is a faster rocker that quite honestly may be my favorite on “Chasing Euphoria”. Such is the quality of the record that even to the very end, the band still delivers. In a world where there is a ton of great music out there, HAREM SCAREM still manage to stand out as being the premier melodic rock band out there. Don’t get me wrong, I love my metal and recently I have been getting into more extreme metal bands but when I crave some melodic rock, there is none better than HAREM SCAREM.
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