Furyon, a hard rock/metal band hailing from the U.K. has just released their debut album “Gravitas” on Italian label Frontiers Records. According to their bio: In the summer of 2009 FURYON flew out to Atlanta and Recorded their Debut album ‘Gravitas’ with Platinum selling US Producer ‘Rick Beato’, who’d received huge success producing US stadium Artists such as Shinedown and Vince Neil. The chemistry of Beato & Furyon was nothing short of electric and resulted in what has now come to be know as ‘The greatest Unsigned album by a British Rock band in Decades”. Once back in the UK the band released a limited run of 2000 copies of Gravitas. Rave reviews of the album quickly followed along with sell out shows across the UK. In 2010, Classic Rock magazine loved the sound so much that they mounted 3 tracks from the album called the ‘Underdog EP’ on the magazine to a worldwide market. Weeks later, Metal Hammer magazine chose the track ‘Wasted on You’ to be part of their cover mounted compilation CD, spreading the word of FURYON across all of Europe and resulting in sponsorship from the Energy drink company ‘MONSTER’.

On first listen, I can hear influences from 90’s era grunge bands like Nirvana (check out the first track “Disappear Again”) and Alice in Chains, and newer American rock bands like Shinedown, Godsmack, Alter Bridge, and Creed (albeit with a more “metal’ edge). The songs on “Gravitas” are rock radio friendly without being too wimpy like Nickelback, although I could see them fitting into AOR radio rotation with the aforementioned bands quite nicely. There are touches of technical prog without going too far into Dream Theater or Rush territory. Lead vocalist Matt Mitchell has a raw and powerful melodic hard rock voice that fits the music here perfectly. The musicianship of the individual band members is top notch. Guitarists Pat Heath and Chris Green can shred on solos and crank out chunky riffs and rhythms that are peppered with Zakk Wylde inspired pinch harmonics.

Standout tracks include the AIC-esque “New Way of Living”, “Disappear Again”, the hard rock groove of “Voodoo Me”, the Sabbath meets Zeppelin doom metal dirge of  “Fear Alone”, the powerful ballad “Our Peace Someday” (Mitchell’s voice particularly shines on this song), “Desert Suicide”, which is the most progressive and longest track on the album. With the right promotion and radio airplay, Furyon could have a huge career in front of them. If you’re into melodic heavy rock with lots of hooks, Furyon could be the band you’ve been waiting for!

Rating: 7.5