HARD

Management & booking:
www.danubiusmusic.com
phone: +36 20 448 40 48
email: [email protected]
Buy the album here:
BIOGRAPHY
HARD is a Swedish-Hungarian hard rock group, formed in 2004 by some of the finest musicians of the Hungarian hard rock scene. After 2 critically acclaimed and award nominated albums in Hungary, the band decided to take a step forward and hit the international music territories with English lyrics. After several line up changes, their first international offering, “Traveler”, was released worldwide in March 2008. The band has appeared in the biggest international hard rock & heavy metal magazines, such us Metal Hammer, Burrn!, Fireworks, Hardline, Powerplay etc.In August 2009, the band announced that they have joined forces with acclaimed Swedish vocalist/guitarist/producer Björn Lodin (Baltimoore). The band is now ready with the long awaited album entitled 'Time Is Waiting For No One', released on Escape Music, in Europe and on BLP Music/Nightmare Records, in North America.
1st review of 'Time Is Waiting For No One':
HARD Time Is Waiting For No One (ESCAPE/HMP) Töredelmesen bevallom, hogy nagyon ritkán hallgatok magyar zenéket, ám ha mégis, akkor is kizárólag régi Edda és Bikini kerül elő nálam. Ezres nagyságrendű CD gyűjteményem 99 százalékát külföldi zenekarok művei teszik ki, de ez abszolút nem előítélet részemről, hiszen kis hazánk muzsikusai semmivel sem tehetségtelenebbek nyugati társaiknál. Hiába vagyok a magyar nyelv évezredes hagyományainak elkötelezett ápolója, a rock & roll muzsika hivatalos nyelve mégiscsak az angol (legalábbis számomra), a Kárpát-medencében viszont csak elvétve találni olyan bandákat (tisztelet a kivételeknek), akik tényleg világszínvonalú produkciót nyújtanak ebből a szempontból is. E hosszúra nyúlt bevezetőt azért ejtettem meg, mert a HARD legénysége most olyan anyagot szállított le, amely simán felveszi a versenyt bármelyik hasonszőrű kinti produkcióval. A Wendigo frontember BZ által tökéletes angolsággal felénekelt előző album (Traveler) sem volt gyenge eresztés, az új korong azonban még ezen is túltesz. Zserbóék megfogták az Isten lábát Björn Lodin-nal, a kultikus Baltimoore zenekar Plant iskolán nevelkedett karcos torkú énekesével, aki amellett, hogy óriási énektémákkal ruházta fel az alapból kiváló dalokat, olyan szintű produkciós munkát végzett svéd házi stúdiójában, melyet valószínűleg még a banda iránt folyamatosan érdeklődő amerikai csúcsproducer, Beau Hill (Ratt, Winger, Unruly Child) sem lenne képes megfejelni. Minden hangszer a helyén, bámulatosan arányos, telt és természetes a hangzás, óriási tere van minden hangszernek, élvezet hallgatni! Pedig a banda által rendelkezésünkre bocsátott CD-n még nem is a véglegesen kevert anyag található, úgyhogy képzelem, milyen állat módon fognak szólni a befejezett felvételek! Akinek még ez sem elég, megemlíteném, hogy az utolsó pillanatban távozott Csillag Endre gitáros helyére egy svéd gitármágus, név szerint Thomas Larsson ugrott be, aki vérbeli profiként szólózta fel majd’ a teljes anyagot. A fickó képességeiről mindennél többet mond, hogy Glenn Hughes máig legjobb albumán, a ’94-es From Now On korongon szerepelt gitárosként és társszerzőként, szóval nem akármilyen szólók, díszítések találhatóak a nótákban. Ha már itt tartunk, a dalok egyenletesen magas színvonalúak, a srácok (Björn, Zserbó, Brumi és Csuka) igazán kitettek magukért. A klasszikus Deep Purple ízeket felvonultató fantasztikus címadó nótát és a Zserbó által írt Love Goes With Anything bluesos líráját már ismerhetik a hívek, hetek óta súlyos rotációban forgatják a nyugat európai rockrádiók is – nem érdemtelenül. A főként akusztikus hangszerekkel előadott Nonában ugyancsak megvan a potenciál, de az Into The Fire is lassan rádiós sorsra jut, pedig az anyag egyik legkeményebb, már-már metalos tétele, tehát nem egy kimondott slágertéma. „Üreshúros” riffjei, valamint Zserbó húzós bőgőtémáira épülő verzéi nagyon tetszetősek, az pedig külön érdekesség, hogy a szóló alatt nincs ritmusgitár, csak dob és basszus – telitalálat! Az anyag kísérletezős tétele a lassú shuffle ritmusra épülő, Hammond orgonás, jammelős Lonesome Loneliness, a kórus azonban itt is remekül eltalált. Felesleges végigelemezni mind a 11 dalt, az eddigi legkomolyabb, legjobb HARD lemez a Time Is Waiting For No One. Aki szereti a ’70-es években gyökeredző, komoly hard rock muzsikát, annak ezt a korongot vétek lenne elszalasztani! D.Gy. 9/10
HARD - TIME IS WAITING FOR NO ONE
(http://www.virtuosityone.com/hard_timewaiting.htm)
HARD are a band hailing from Hungary originally performing hard rock in their native tongue before delivering an album in English entitled “Traveller” which caught the attention of producer Beau Hill who remixed a few tracks, that said the album was rather average melodic hard rock at best. Now the band are back with a new vocalist, none other than Baltimoore main man Bjorn Lodin for “Time Is Waiting For No One” and his influence is quite easy to hear on the band with this being a considerable step up in quality. Coming across as a mix of Aerosmith, Whitesnake, AC/DC along with some more modern commercial touches the album is for the most part a very solid cohesive unit of songs.Kicking off with a couple of driving tunes in the title track and “Black Clouds” both of which are sure to get dandruff flying from front rows when the band play live. Musically the band are pretty straightforward, solid and able of delivering hard rock with style, but its Lodin’s vocals and his adventurous play with words that brings a smile to my face particularly on the latter track. The music is also enhanced with the addition of guest lead guitarist Thomas Larsson (Baltimoore/Glenn Hughes) who’s shows more teeth and guile here than on most other recent works from him.“Lonesome Loneliness” is a left field step from the albums traditional opener, with Lodin delivering a Steven Tyler esque rhythmic swank in his vocal delivery. “Love Goes With Anything” is melodic soft rock which is obviously aimed at radio and likely to find appeal on a wider scale, Lodin voice sounds very soulful here. “Magical Pretence” is arguably the highlight of the album with its great riff, and superb melody lines from Lodin – particularly the swooping lines of the chorus, not a million miles away from the excellent work on Baltimoore’s “Kaleidoscope” album in truth.“Into The Fire” is more swaggering hard rock built for slaying arena’s, musically its AC/DC meets early Whitesnake with Lodin’s vocal being a full blooded delivery of mike swinging, crotch crunching David Coverdale proportions , Larsson gets extended solo time here and its thoroughly rewarding as well. Whilst there is nothing subtle about the track being home to every hard rock cliché going its tremendously good fun. “The Pace And The Flow” is the kind of retrospective feel good slowy the likes Aerosmith and Bon Jovi play around with, although the mood is kicked up with a heavier chorus.Next up is a cover of the Baltimoore track “My Kind Of Woman” being more stripped down and Lodin staying in lower registers than he did on the 1992 original, to be honest I prefer the original but then maybe your opinion will differ. “Nona” is back to middle America FM radio goodness which given the complete lack of American blood in the band suggests some American bands looking for songwriters might do well to look over the pond for talent! The track is a nice blend of acoustic guitar, Hammond B3 and bluesy fills, Lodin again sounds great here.“Shine On Me Now” is a track which sits a little uneasily with the rest of the material being that its quite different from the rest of the material on offer with Lodin delivery a very disjointed, yet strangely captivating after a few spins vocals. Time will tell whether the track will settle in with its surroundings. “Four Leaf Clover” ends the album on a melancholic feel, telling a story of coming back to a loved one, nice enough and again the mix of cleaner guitars and Hammond is strong and here the production really breathes.For the most part HARD have delivered a strong album with their new vocalist. It has to be said the influence of Lodin is quite apparent in pretty much all aspects of the album from the production (being a typically flawless effort by Lodin) whilst the classic nature of the majority of the material is sure to find an easy settling home with most classic/melodic/hard rock fans. That said a couple of tracks don’t exhume quite the same class as their counterparts (Shine On Me Now, My Kind Of Woman) but overall “Time Is Waiting For No One” is a strong rock album – great album cover too!Hot Spots : Black Clouds, Magical Pretence, Into The Fire, Nona. Rating : 90%
Hard - Time is Waiting for No One
(http://www.metal-revolution.com/plugins/content/content.php ?content.2858)
Rating: 90/100
Hard is a Swedish-Hungarian hard rock group, formed in 2004 by some of the finest musicians of the Hungarian hard rock scene. After 2 critically acclaimed and award nominated albums in Hungary, the band decided to take a step forward and hit the international music territories with English lyrics.Oh, hells, yes! Those 3 words are the first to spring to my mind when I listen to this album, hard rock at its best, most definitely. Hard has managed to keep a classical hard rock theme and even put a bit more edge to it, the songs on the album are very well written, they will have you singing along in no time and make you wonder how you could’ve gone this long without that kind of music. The song title track is by far my favorite number although almost every single one of these tracks are really well made and the production is great, there’s no glitching or anything in any of the songs.I can only speak fondly of this album, and I’m proud to present said album to the world of music, because this should not be kept in the dark, it is simply too brilliant to not be known by the public.If you love music, you should get this album and if you don’t love music, you’ll get to love it when you buy this album. In all seriousness though, it is an amazing album and I get stunned each time I put it up for a spin. Hard has given me a whole new opinion in music, I just hope that future bands can live up to my new expectations.