BIOGRAPHY OF BOP UP UNTIL THE YEAR 2002
The story begins in Brighton, England in 1995, Keyboardist IVAN GUNN put together a band of excellent London Rockers and BALANCE OF POWER was born. The band suffered line up changes before solidifying their band. Original members from the first album; Guitarist Paul Curtis, Singer Tony Ritchie, were replaced at the labels request as stylistic changes were made that didn't fit those members talents. American Lead Vocalist Lance King and British Guitarist Pete Southern, were the replacements that all were very happy with. Keyboardist Ivan Gunn has recently left as his company Anthem Records was going so well that he did not have enough time to dedicate to the group. The band has created three full albums, the first two, "WHEN THE WORLD FALLS DOWN" & "BOOK OF SECRETS" respectively were released in Japan and Europe with little push however have garnered rave reviews and have sold in excess of 100,000 copies. The new release "TEN MORE TALES OF GRAND ILLUSION" was released to Japan on October 20th, and has done very well. European and North American releases are scheduled for November 22nd and November 23rd respectively.
Final Line up: Members
Lead Vocalist LANCE KING
Guitarist/ vocals PETE SOUTHERN
Guitarist BILL YATES
Bassist / Vocalist TONY RITCHIE
Drummer LIONEL HICKS
The first BALANCE OF POWER album, "When the World Falls Down" was started in October of 1996. Lionel had just finished studying music engineering at a prestigious school for the arts and had built a studio that he later named POD Studios. It was here that recording started, engineered and produced by Paul and Lionel.
This album received Major air play on the 11 huge metal syndicated shows in Japan, with famous radio personalities Captain Wada & Masa Itoh playing it in hot rotation. After the first album the band were put under pressure by their Japanese label "Pony Canyon" to produce a second, so work was started straight away. That was when the first bombshell hit the band. Paul had become increasingly fed up with life in London and had become disillusioned with the music business. He announced that he was retiring from it all and moving to Cumbria in northern England. Since then he has disappeared completely. It was only natural that Pete Southern was asked if he wanted to join the band, he accepted. After hearing the new direction of the new songs written with Pete, Pony Canyon put a lot of pressure on us about Tony's vocal style saying we needed a vocalist with more dynamics and a higher range for the new sound. This was a huge blow to us and after much discussion and soul searching we agreed that we would look to see if we could find someone. Tony would continue to fulfill the role of songwriter within the band. This was a very hard decision to make for all concerned. The band auditioned 50 or so singers from the UK, but was unsuccessful in finding the right person. Ivan was working on some licensing deals with Lance King in the USA, at the time, and asked him if he knew of a suitable vocalist over there. Lance said he did, and that he might be interested as well. Ivan was familiar with all the singers that Lance referred him to, but was most interested in Lance. Lance was sent digital demo's that he recorded his idea on and sent back to us. After the first listen there was no decision to be made, he was perfect and he was in. Lance had formerly put out 2 releases with "Gemini"and one with "The Kings Machine", both based in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA.
BALANCE OF POWER second release "Book of Secrets" is an album with a theme, or a "Concept album". Based on The Bible Code by Michael Drosnin. It was this that inspired the theme that seemed to link all the songs on the album together. The album received rave reviews all over Europe and Japan and was welcomed to the radio again with songs "Seven Days into Nevermore" & "Miracles and Dreams" getting heavy rotation again on all syndicated metal shows. Bruce Dickenson highlighted the album on the European underground network in which he played the entire album and talked about how much he loved it. Lionel again engineered in his POD
studio's and Lance flew over from the United States to record the vocals in "The Vocal Suite" in Soho ( downtown London). While there, Lionel and Lance hit it off so well that once recording was complete Lionel flew over and stayed with Lance in Minneapolis where they both mixed and mastered the album with the help of Brian Bart at Logic Studios. It was completed during the summer of 1998. Both record companies loved it and subsequently released it in Japan and Europe. It gained excellent reviews in the rock press and capitalized on the attention gained by the debut album. By this time, the band was eager to play "live". Pressure was put on both record companies to organize a tour. Unfortunately the economy in Japan had experienced a hard blow and even the largest bands were not drawing good attendance. Combined with the fact that our European record company didn't cement a tour, we stayed home and once again focused back on making new music.
Disappointed, but not broken the band returned to the studio and found inspiration for the forthcoming album "Ten More Tales of Grand Illusion". The album saw Tony and Lance working closely together on the vocal front and Pete stretching to greater heights with some phenomenal lead work. Using the same recording formula, this time Tony and Lance had put together compatible digital studios along with Lionels. All was brought together at POD. Again the band chose to Mix and Master in Minneapolis, with the guidance of Lionel and Lance, this time at OARFIN studios with engineer Todd Fitzgerald. More changes seemed imminent. Keyboardist Ivan had become increasingly busy with his label Anthem, so much so that he never ended up contributing anything to the new album "Ten More Tales....". It was agreed mutually that Ivan would leave the group. After which publishing, management and promotion deals were struck with Brainstorm in Germany for Europe. Nightmare Records signed the band for North America. And due to bad record keeping and communication the group decided to leave their European label "Point" and signed with "Massacre Records" in Germany for all of Europe.
"TEN MORE TALES OF GRAND ILLUSION" Was released in Japan October 20th, in Europe on November 21 and in the USA on January 15th 2000 to a barrage of fantastic press worldwide. Ten more tales received many nominations for album of the month and even album of the year again from magazines. Finally we were asked to tour mysteriously after our Keyboardist had left the business helm, and we went to Germany for a month with PINK CREAM 69 & AXXIS and played 19 shows in 21 days, the band was finally able to put rest to the rumous that they were just a studio band. Shortly before our Tour began we parted ways with CHRIS DALE, our bassist, and reinstated our continued lyricist, former vocalist Tony Ritchie to the ranks as our new bassist. The tour was deamed the most successful metal tour in the last 2-3 years in Germany. Venues across Germany were sold out to capacity.
IN THE SPRING OF 2001 BALANCE OF POWER HAS DONE IT AGAIN, THE NEW ALBUM "PERFECT * BALANCE" HITTING THE STREETS IN EUROPE - JULY 23rd (on MASSACRE ), JAPAN- AUG 7th (on our new label AVALON / MARQUEE ) AND THE USA- AUGUST 14th (on NIGHTMARE) All three releases are Unique onto themselves of PERFECT BALANCE, each has it's very own cover artwork, the US version has a fantastic CDROM section for your computers to see live video footage taken from last years German tour, along with many other goodies, the JAPANESE version hastwo BONUS TRACKS.
Already Rave Reviews of PERFECT BALANCE being the bands best album yet are pouring in from Europe and Japan. The band is very excited to be playing the PROGPOWER festival in Atlanta, Georgia on November 9th, and are in the planning stages of a German tour, fingers crossed BOP will get
to go to Japan this year and rock on!
www.balance-of-power.com
This is the 4th album for this group, Released worldwide
The band has seen some line up changes, but it has always
turned out for the best as each album will tell as you listen
to them, Here is the first of Reviews to come in from Europe
on this fantastic album.
Album of the month:
Balance of Power: "Perfect Balance"
Massacre Records(Europe) Nightmare Records(USA ) Marquee records(Japan)
Oh boy, is this ever going to tear up a storm. Man, this is so damned heavy, I have to keep looking at the sleeve to convince myself that it's BALANCE OF POWER that I'm listening to. I thought "Book Of Secrets" was the band's crowning glory, but history is about to be re-written.
I'll start with what I think are the two least spectacular tracks here, "Fire Dance" and "House Of Cain", but for God's sake, don't read 'least spectacular' as 'poor', because they're both sophisticated, ass-kicking prog-metal of the finest order; it's just that they are utterly dwarfed by the stature of the likes of "Shelter Me", "Once Voice" and "Killer Or The Cure", which are amongst the best of songs ever penned within their genre. How the quiet, affable, and overwhelmingly genuine Tony Ritchie consistently writes such stunning songs, I'll never know, but he's taken all the best elements from the earlier Balance Of Power albums and grafted them onto the heavier groove that he developed on the USM album, producing a monster hybrid in the process. I'd say that he's fast becoming one of the most talented British songwriters of his generation, and within the prog-metal sphere, there's nobody else on these shores that is even in the same league. And in my opinion, he could give the rest of Europe a good run for their money too.
In our interview elsewhere in this issue, drummer and producer Lionel Hicks describes the aforementioned "Shelter Me" as the 'complete' song, and he's spot on the mark. From the piano opening to the driving, down-tuned riffs, there's passion and heart-stopping power throughout, topped off with an exceptional vocal melody. The beefy, dynamic riffs may keep the feet of this song rooted firmly on prog-metal soil, but that vocal melody will have the melodic hard rock fraternity wetting themselves with delight. But even that melody is surpassed by the rousing chorus on "One Voice", one of those rare and magical slices of melodious metal that hook you in on the first listen and drag you back time and time again for just one more hit. Absolutely fantastic, as is "Killer Or The Cure", a storming strut that may be more easily associated with the band's earlier material. Here, vocalist Lance King digs deep into his Geoff Tate repertoire and pulls a killer performance out of the hat. Lance is honest enough to cite Mr Tate as a big influence, and it's hardly surprising considering how similar they sound at times, such as on "Pleasure Room", where Lance explores the hidden depths of his voice with a moody performance that will strike a chord with anyone whoenjoys the 'Ryche's moody moments, such as "Bridge" from "Promised Land".
The track order here has been carefully chosen for maximum impact, with the bass-heavy, pulverising "Higher Than The Sun" grabbing the attention at the start, and the Eldritch-like pace, power and catchiness of "Searching For The Truth" closing the album in a way that leaves you stunned and reaching for the rewind button. In between, "Hard Life" has an early eastern feel, the biggest, chunkiest riff in the band's arsenal, and some stratospheric vocal stretching from Lance.
So we've established that the songs are of the highest order and that the band put in a performance to do them and the fabulous material credit, but what really lifts this album from being great to being astounding is the breathtaking production job, care of Lionel Hicks. I'm about as demanding a critic as you can get when it comes to sound quality, so you can bet your bottom dollar that for me to give top marks here, the production and the mix really do meet the grade. There are no signs of the woolly bass and stiff or muted delivery that dog so many recordings, no sir; the bass and drum scores are firm and precise, the guitars and keys cut a swathe through the mix, and the vocal level is spot on throughout.
You can call me harsh for not awarding this a 10 for songwriting, especially given my remarks about Tony's superlative work, but I just can't help thinking that Balance Of Power have only just got into their stride and - mind-blowingly spectacular as this album is - there is even more and even better to come. Go on lads, prove me right!
Exciting, stimulating and thoroughly addictive, this fast and furious fusion of power and melody is definitely the best to date from Balance Of Power. Perfect balance? Perfect indeed!
10,9,10
MARK HOAKSEY / POWERPLAY MAGAZINE / GREAT BRITAIN
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