As part of the stupendous “Lost Jewels Collectors Series”, today we have here the fantastic “Eyes Of The World” from Swedish Melodic Rock / ’80s AOR band RED HOT, as volume 4 of its appreciated “Lost Melodic Jewels” series, a HUGE 2-CD set – STEELHEART Records managed to have ALL of the songs recorded in the
history of the band (1983-1989) in this not-to-be missed double disc (33 songs!!!) remastered from original tapes provided by the band and limited to 500 copies.
RED HOT was started in Sweden during 1983 and the band’s style is very close to the classic Swedish Melodic Rock a la Europe, Treat, Skagarack, Bad Habit, Madison, Dalton – later morphing into mid-Eighties AOR. Especially the keyboard work and the voice of singer Peter Wennerberg are strongly reminiscent of Europe circa The Final Countdown.
Hailing from Helsingborg, a coastal city in the South of Sweden, RED HOT were formed in the early Eighties. Whilst initially they came armed with a huge Deep Purple fixation, the acquisition of their second singer, Peter Wennerberg, saw him steer them towards bands like Treat and Europe.
The band played the Scandinavian circuit for almost the entire decade. Quite how a band that has recorded over thirty demos can go unnoticed is beyond me. They are not even in the Swedish Encyclopaedia of Hard-Rock and Heavy Metal, a mystery almost. Even the record labels were oblivious to their talents and succinct songwriting.
In Peter Wennerberg they had the natural heir to Joey Tempest; just listen to ‘Eyes Of The World’ – a junior ‘Final Countdown’ if ever I heard one, for proof of this man’s prowess.
From the Purple-esque beginnings of tracks like ‘Voice In The Night’ and ‘Living In Madness’ through to the prime-time Scandi class of ‘Hang On’, ‘1999’ and ‘Turn Up Your Radio’, RED HOT were quite the enticing proposition yet they somehow managed to miss the boat completely.
It remains a mystery why RED HOT didn’t get a record deal at that time – they were very good songwriters & performers. Additionally, they recorded professionally the songs presented here, with a very good sound quality.
To make the package even more attractive there’s a complete 16-page booklet containing the story of the band told by Rob “AOR master” Evans and tons of great never-seen band’s pics.
In Rob’s own words; “as far as Swedish AOR goes, these songs are quite possibly some of the greatest to be unearthed in quite some time!”
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
CD 1
1 Higher And Higher
2 One Way
3 Dreamer
4 Eyes Of The World
5 Red Lights
6 Our Love
7 Fight Fire With Fire
8 Hobo
9 Love Is Just An Emotion
10 Japanese Girls
11 Lonely Nights
12 Hot Girls
13 Fool In Your Chains
14 Lovelight
15 Speed Out Of Time
16 Turn Up Your Radio
CD 2
1 Burns Like Fire
2 Armed And Dangerous
3 Time Goes On
4 Lies
5 All Of My Love
6 1999
7 Hold On
8 Ground Control
9 Hang On
10 Bad Girls
11 Love Comes Tumpling Down
12 Two Strong Arms
13 Delilah
14 Voice In The Night
15 Someone
16 Living In Madness
17 Shadow Of Your Love