Khymera: The Grand Design

While the Khymera project started out as a partnership between Italian producer/musician, Daniele Liverani and then Kansas singer Steve Walsh, it soon developed into a regular musical project when the American born, Pink Cream 69/Unisonic bassist and producer Dennis Ward came into the picture.

It is Dennis Ward who has taken the reigns of Khymera and with their latest release, The Grand Design (Frontiers Records srl), they take a step back into the Melodic Rock that filled the airwaves of the U.S. back in the late 80's. Fans of radio friendly Rock and Power Ballads like Journey, Steel Heart or Guiffria will delight in taking a step back into 1988. Khymera have conjured up a slick and not very rough sounding disc with The Grand Design, a 12 track album that harkens back to a time when big hair, John Hughes movies and MTV were what ruled the day.

The Grand Design is considered to be European Melodic Rock but to me it sounds very much like a record steeped in the L.A. sound and while not necessarily breaking any new ground, it does capture the fun and carefree feeling that were the 80's. Songs like the super catchy, "Never Give Up On You", the sugar sweet "Who's Fooling Who", the huge chorus and vocals of "Land Of Golden Dreams", the heavier Dokken like opening riff of the title track, "The Grand Design" or the big Dan Huff/Giant (band) sounding "She's Got The Love", the 80's are all well represented while the songwriting and production have that polished L.A. sound and the musicianship is spot on.

Khymera's The Grand Design, while it does sound very date stamped in the 80's (which is not a bad thing at all) is a quality product that is somewhat refreshing. Having grown up in the 80's, each of the 12 songs remind me of different times of my life during those days and also remind me of different bands of that era. Album-Oriented Rock of the late 1980's was a HUGE staple of American Rock Radio and Khymera's latest effort reflects the good of what Melodic Rock used to be and does it very well, if only it wasn't 2016.

Track Listing

1. Never Give Up On You
2. Tell Me Something
3. Say What You Want
4. I Believe
5. A Night To Remember
6. She's Got The Love
7. Land Of Golden Dreams
8. The Grand Design
9. Streetlights
10. Who's Fooling Who
11. Finally
12. Where Is The Love

Added: January 25th 2016
Reviewer: Butch Jones
Score:
Related Link: Frontiers Records
Hits: 1775
Language: english

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