The result of Steel Breeze’s second album is a pleasant AOR workout, though rather cliched in places. Fortunately it is not as poppy as their debut, and follows a more pompy path.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Steel Breeze
ALBUM: Heart On The Line
LABEL: Indie
SERIAL: SB0015
YEAR: 1983
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Kevin Chalfant – vocals * Ken Goorabian – guitars * Waylin Carpenter – guitars * Rod Toner – keyboards * Loren Haas – keyboards * Vinnie Pantaleoni – bass * Barry Lowenthal – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Heart On The Line * 02 Easy Way Out * 03 Survivor * 04 I Remember * 05 Hard To Get * 06 Temptation Eyes * 07 Never Again * 08 I’m Here * 09 Communication * 10 Try A Little Harder
WEBLINKS: Wikipedia Page
Background
Steel Breeze, from Sacremento, blew onto the scene in 1982, and scraped into the US Top 40 singles with their minor hit ‘You Don’t Want Me Anymore’. Their self titled debut album was a poppy AOR affair, probably given the pop overload treatment by producer Kim Fowley.
However, a year on and they changed tack a little, having been dropped by RCA, and losing vocalist Ric Jacob’s. However, in came new singer Kevin Chalfant (where have I heard that name before??), and an additional keyboardist in Loren Haas.
The result of Steel Breeze’s second album is a pleasant AOR workout, though rather cliched in places. Fortunately it is not as poppy as their debut, and follows a more pompy path. All the songs bring reminders of other bands in the genre ploughing the same road. Like The Producers, Loverboy, and some of the later 70’s bands though not as polished.
The Songs
For the AOR fan we really don’t get to hear Mr Chalfant stretch out with the material provided. However, on some of the songs he gets close.
Also, the keyboards are quite prominent on this album, and harks back to ivory tinklings that the likes of Jimmy Waldo and Howard Helm used to perform with their respective bands.
All the songs are listenable, though the exceptional ones in my books are ‘Survivor’ (this could have been a Zon song), ‘Temptation Eyes’ which rocks a bit more than the others, and the duet of ‘Communication’ and ‘Try A Little Harder’ which are the last two songs on the album.
In Summary
As a bit of history, Steel Breeze released albums right up to 1994, releasing five albums to date since inception, though with differing lineups over time.
Steel Breeze on Video
Heart On The Line
I’m Here
I Remember
Communication
