Leviticus "Knights of Heaven"

Leviticus

Knights of Heaven

1989 Royal Music

Produced By: John & Dino Elefante

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Track Listings

Born Again (3:38)

The World Goes 'Round (4:16)

Isn't It Love (4:32)

Oh Lord (4:51)

Feel So Good (2:20)

Strong Love (3:38)

Messiah (3:55)

Over the Hills (3:55)

For Once in My Life (4:07)

Love on Fire (3:40)

Musicians

Bjorn Stiggson: Guitars, Background Vocals

Peo Pettersson: Lead Vocals, Keyboards

Kjell Andersson: Drums, Percussion

Niklas Frannklin: Bass, Background Vocals

David Amato: Additional Background Vocals

"they're coming over the hills, across the lands, over the mountains, right to the end...to tell the world the Message of Love...riding on white horses...the Knights of Heaven..."

Knights of Heaven is another album that I can give credit to my older brother for discovering during his years working in Christian retail. It was around the same time he would bring home demos of such bands as Angelica for me to listen too, he gifted me with a CDs on the Royal Music label. Leviticus, Q Stone, Edin-Adahl...who are these people? While not all of those CDs (regretfully) stayed in my collection, Leviticus did and quickly became one of my favorite albums of the 90's.

One of the first things I noticed about the album was that it was produced by John & Dino Elefante. I was already a fan of their work on Mastedon, Guardian and other bands so I figured it had to at least be decent. It only took a few times listening to the album from beginning to end before I became a fan. I loved the big vocal harmonies on the chorus, the slick production and overall vibe of the album. Knights of Heaven got me really curious about this metal band from Sweden and what else they had done. Sadly other than a best off collection released in 1993, this was Leviticus' last album. However I was able to track down some earlier albums and while I enjoyed them, their sound was remarkably different. This just proved that Knights of Heaven had the Elefante's fingerprints all over the project...which at least for me was a fan. While this album had a more melodic sound than their previous work, all of their music is really good and deserves a chance to be heard.

From what I can tell / remember, Peo Pettersson only sang lead vocals on this album. No offense to the previous lead signers, but Peo had a good set of lungs on him. He ranks up there with Ken Tamplin and Michael Sweet as one of my favorite vocalists. 

Some of the stand out tracks are Isn't it Love, Strong Love, Over the Hills and Messiah. Not only does Peo shine, but they have some great guitar solos and the big vocal harmonies on the chorus makes it fun to sing along with. I haven't listened to this album in some time, but immediately after popping it in my player the vocals came right back to me.

Oh Lord and For Once in My Life are the two ballads on the album, with in my opinion the latter of the two being the better. Feel So Good has this upbeat tempo and a goofy sounding chorus, constantly using the sound "oooee". The best part of the song is that it is the shortest on the album! 

It seemed as if for awhile this CD was hard to find on the secondary market, or at least expensive when you could find it. A quick scan of sold auctions on eBay however shows this album has been selling for less than $10 in the last 6 months. If you are fan of the Elefantes, Leviticus or just looking for a great melodic rock album I urge you to give Knights of Heaven a chance.