Full album preview available, incl. 3 full songs:

First video release from “III”

“III” - players and contributors

We are proud to release the first video for “III” - it is for the song “Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea”:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recorded in the bands own shorerocks studio in Karlsruhe, Germany, Jan and Sven were joined by Swedish drummer extraordinaire Magnus Brandell who is featured on 8 of the 11 tracks.

Jan Knopf again did an outstanding job delivering the vocals. “I have to say that this record is kinda vocal heavy”, states Sven. “Producing and arranging the songs made this a deliberate decision. We both love the trademark vocal harmonies of melodic rockers from Journey to Survivor as well as more progressive bands like Styx and Kansas. Without question the biggest influence of all is Queen. Their body of work is simply outstanding.”

Sven played all guitars, bass and also the keyboards. He also added some background vocals, but those “only support the rich harmonies from Jan” as he clarifies.

Finally we got permission to use 2 marvelous photos of Tom Lichtenwalter, who is known for his US landscape pictures. The icing on the cake, so to speak.

Tom Lichtenwalter

Berklee educated drummer Magnus Brandell has long experience from  sessions and touring and has played with Par Lindh Project, William  Kopecky, Ian Rapien, Joe Faulder among others.

At Berklee, Magnus studied  polyrhythms with professors Mike Mangini (of Dream Theater) and Skip Hadden. He now teaches drums and percussion when not doing sessions.

Photographer / videographer Tom Lichtenwalter contributed two  of his American landscape pictures for the  CD cover artwork of “III”. He devides his time between Germany, USA and Czech Republic..

Reviews for ‘drive’

Reviews for ‘Hotter Than A Thousand Suns’

Review for “drive” on melodicrock.com (excerpt) -
“(...) It's hard sometime to review these sorts of releases alongside bands that have 20 times the money and 50 times the resources to get their albums sounding right, and even then they sometimes fail.
So much respect to High Road Easy who have recorded an enjoyable set of tunes for this, their second album. The songs here – melodic rock in nature – are simple, yet diverse enough to require repeat listens.”

Review for “drive” (excerpt) on rockpages.gr  -
“(...) Should we move to one of the mighty album hits now? “Mysterious” is a Foreigner meets Purple meets Journey song, with a Pop twist… It’s a fantastic melody, so loose, so full of spring. Just like the “Beat Of My Heart” epilogue… Their second album makes us want a third one RIGHT NOW! All the best to the boys!”

Review for “drive” (excerpt, German) -
“(...) Geboten bekommt man einen Mix aus rockigem Melodic Rock, hochmelodiösen AOR und saulässiger Westcoast – Mucke. Der Albumeinstieg „Fire In The Hole“ erinnert direkt an große musikalische Vorbilder wie Journey und kann gegen Ende außerdem noch mit einer spontanen, sehr rockigen Gitarreneinlage überraschen. „Loving You“ erzeugt durch sein durchgängiges Grundriff Southern Rock Stimmung, während in der Ballade „Emily“  Toto meets Marillion Feeling aufkommt.
„Fly From Here“ ist eine leicht melancholische Nummer, die vor allem durch ihren extrem eingängigen Chorus punkten kann.  Zu Songs wie „Love Lies Bleeding“  und „Setting Our Sights“ möchte man im Sommer bei strahlendem Sonnenschein am liebsten mit heruntergekurbelten Fenstern durch die Gegend cruisen und auf „Mysterious“ schwingen die Jungs nochmal die Journey – und Foreigner Keule. Bisher war ich von deutschem Melodic Rock  nie sonderlich begeistert, aber High Road Easy haben mit „Drive“ auf der ganzen Linie hochklassige Überzeugungsarbeit geleistet!”
9,5 Sterne von 10

Review for “drive” (excerpt, German) -
„Drive“ bietet extrem melodische Gitarrenarbeit und sehnsüchtige Vocals, die den Hörer von menschenleeren Highways in Arizona träumen lassen, die mit dem Oldtimer-Truck bei sengender Hitze und tiefblauem Himmel unter die breit ausladenden Räder genommen werden. Einen Arm aus dem Fenster gelehnt, cruisen HIGH ROAD EASY mit Kippe im Mundwinkel durch die Wüste Richtung Zivilisation. Auf dem Weg dorthin treibt der Gedanke an die wartende Holde und die bald hereinbrechende Dunkelheit, deren Schatten und Versuchungen schwelgerisch besungen werden.

Review for “Hotter Than A Thousand Suns” on melodicrock.com -
High Road Easy is the brain child of German musician Sven Horlemann, responsible here for all instruments while vocals are handled by Jan Knopf.
The self produced affair is the latest of several releases from Horlemann, and features a punchy European melodic hard rock sound. It has the feel of a one man band, but for an independent release has an impressive sound.
Musically I can't compare, but it's a pretty gritty release. It is melodic hard rock without fitting into any category or safe comparison.
Well worth checking out for something different.
78% good - lookin' into very good

Review for “Hotter Than A Thousand Suns” on strutterzine -
HIGH ROAD EASY is a German band formed around vocalist JAN KNOPF and multi-instrumentalist SVEN HORLEMANN.
They released a strong full-length CD titled ‘Hotter than a thousand suns’, which contains some great AOR/Melodic Hardrock tunes, such as opener “Don’t wait for me” that reminds a bit of FAIR WARNING, but also the titletrack, “Better place” (best song, kinda BON JOVIish!) and “Play our part” are examples of the band’s AOR type of material.
However, the band also throws in a lot of heavy Bluesy Hardrock orientated material in between that has some DEEP PURPLE/LED ZEPPELIN influences, ending up sounding like KINGDOM COME actually, yet due to the AOR touch the band in general could be labeled as Melodic Hardrock.
The sound/production is very good for an independent CD and if they could concentrate on creating more uptempo Melodic Hardrock based tunes next time, who knows...
HIGH ROAD EASY has definitely potential, so go check them out.
Points: 8.2 out of 10

Solo releases by Sven Horlemann

Always the productive and creative mind, Sven also releases solo records. These are mainly instrumental songs and the style is more rock than hard rock.

Occasionally collaborations end up on the final product. On “Standing Tall” (2013) Klaus Schmuck contributed vocals to three songs they wrote together.

Both records are released worldwide via CD Baby and available digitally as well as retail CD’s.