Kashmir – Balance

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The minute you look to the name of the band it’s impossible not to recall the blasting Led Zeppelin’s all-time success. Therefore, the fan expects the music to be near the Zeps or anywhere near. Flat wrong, my dear fan. Kashmir go hundreds of miles away from their famous and eponymous song. In fact, the band goes only near the same period of time; the late seventies. “Balance” offers a honest and delicious trip to the past without the need of any machine, I mean, only the player.

I must say that this album is for the fan who is really into some Heavy Rock or Hard Rock deeply based on what Deep Purple and their peers used to do in the late seventies and early eighties, in some cases. When I say peers I mean the bands that somehow were related to Deep Purple after their disband as Whitesnake and Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow or the Italian Vanadium. It’s impossible not to relate Kashmir to them due to the prominent keyboards. It’s not only that, it’s also the tone that emulates the one keyboardist Jon Lord, simply the best Rock and Metal has ever seen. The kind of album for the fan who has an open mind to whatever was done in the name of heavy music. I guess it’s part of the education of the metalhead to know what there is near Metal even efter or before it.

The taste of the seventies is also in tracks that run away a little from the heaviest stuff with some swing and funky keys as “Dirty Road” which a full of swing piano and the heavy and funky guitars of “Having a Good Time” which make a great effect. Of course, from where I’m standing, this kind of track goes too far, but that’s life. Okay, guys, I guess Kashmir should, respectfully, send a copy of “Around This Moment” to all Heavy Rock, Hard Rock, Metal and others as a piece of how to make a ballad with so much heart and passion and musicality. The song is a lesson for all of them. Passionate, strong and still heavy.

By the way, the one and only reference to “Kashmir,” the Zep’s song, is in the intro with oriental sounds as a citar and the keyboards in the chorus of  “Remember Kashmir.”

Kashmir “Balance” will be released on April 01st via Somnus Media.

Track Listing:

  1. Sweet Child
  2. Freezing in Your Heart
  3. Rescue Me
  4. With Hands in Heaven
  5. Around This Moment
  6. Dirty Road
  7. Remember Kashmir
  8. Having a Good Time
  9. Queen of the Show
  10. Another Name in The Sand
  11. Come And Dance
  12. Hard Times R’n’R

Watch “Sweet Child” oficial music video here: