Wake the Nations: Sign of Heart

Finland's Wake the Nations are seemingly on a bit of a mission to bring back the 1980s. To my middle-aged mind this always a good thing and there is plenty to recommend on Sign of Heart if you are a fan of 80's inflected melodic rock like me. That isn't to say that this is sonic perfection but in a throwback kind of way this is a pleasant way to pass the time. In terms of generic conventions this is in a similar paradigm to the new Eclipse record Armageddonize but by no means as muscular in the execution.

Sign of Heart has some tremendous tunes within its confines – I utterly love "The Touch of Your Hand" and its unfeasibly cheesy keyboard solo which punctuates the middle section which, allied to an infectious chorus makes for pleasant listening. It also helps for me that Janne Hurme of Human Temple is involved and his distinctive tones always improve anything he appears on. It's somewhat disconcerting that track three features female lead vocals which alongside the humongous cast list (Risto Tuominen [Finland] / guitars, vocals, additional keys, Janne "Gekko" Granfors [Finland] / bass, Jori "Jorge" Tojander [Finland] / keys with Tuomas Pelli [Finland] / drums forming the core band with help from the aforementioned Janne Hurme as well as Dado Topic [Croatia] / vocals, Estef Martinez - Insider [Ecuador] / vocals, Taage Laiho - Kilpi/Mad Hatter's Den [Finland] / vocals, Nils Nordling - Dirge Eternal [Finland] / vocals, Krister Stenbom , Villa Sucka [Finland] / vocals, Timo Pelander - Finlanders [Finland] / guitar, Jari Pailamo - Ponies To Kill/No Man's Land [Finland] / keys, Kalle Saarinen and Clayskin [Finland] / drums)which lend everything a kind of project feel rather than an organic band but there are so many fine songs ("So Broken" being another winner) that it is difficult not to recommend this one to melodic rock fans everywhere.

Track Listing:
1. Fairytale Romance
2. The Touch Of Your Hand
3. All I Want
4. So Broken
5. Love Distracts The Senses
6. This Feeling
7. Sea Of Emptiness
8. Love Leads The Way
9. Until The End Of Time
10. Who Am I

Added: January 27th 2015
Reviewer: Simon Bray
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 3100
Language: english

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