H.E.A.T (2023 New Mix)

H.E.A.T debuted in 2008 with a self-titled album, and its place in the Swedish top ten was the answer to the idea that Kurt Cobain's generation had nailed the hair metal coffin shut at the start of the 1990s. What is on it is the vocabulary of 1980s hard rock, used as such: bluesy phrasing out of Whitesnake, gang choruses in the manner of Def Leppard, guitar solos kept short and to the point, and a drum sound of a size no record made after 1991 seems to have. There are synthesisers too -- if Van Halen did it, the reasoning goes, why shouldn't they. What keeps the whole thing from being written off as nostalgia is how well it is played and how well the songs are built. This record is that debut, mixed again by the band themselves. Of the nineteen tracks the first fourteen are the album; after them come the original version of "Cry", the 2008 version of "Stay", a radio edit and a live recording of "Keep On Dreaming", and a karaoke version of "1000 Miles". earMUSIC released it on 13 October 2023. There is no Japanese edition. metal100 files it under 17 November, but tower.jp gives 13 October for 0218840EMU.