Just seeing the name Tony Harnell brings to mind one particular style of music and in particular one band, TNT. By my reckoning I think he has been in that group on four different occasions, for a sum total of more than 20 years, so although it is possible that he and Ronnie Le Tekrø will never work together again, no-one can really be sure. Since his most recent departure he has formed a new band with Gianluca Ferro (guitars), Alessandro Del Vecchio (bass, keyboards) and Edo Sala (drums), and of course he has kept within the same musical area, namely punchy melodic rock with his vocals very much front and centre. It is an attempt to out-TNT the band themselves and return to the classic Eighties sound with which they made their name.

The result is an album which certainly stands up with what one expects from Harnell, as he has certainly lost none of his vocal chops, and is still a great singer, but the songs do not always live up to the performance. Sala hits the drums hard, but for me there just is not enough going on at the back, and while Ferro is a great guitarist, he spends too much time just crunching riffs with the odd (very effective) solo. There is the feeling that here is a band with promise, but they are still getting to grips with the relationships and currently this is a studio project as opposed to a live band. They need to hit the road as a unit, spend hours playing together on the same stage, and then the next album should have the bite and impact which only comes from people consistently playing next to each other for many hours. As it is, this is still an album which will be sought out by those into melodic rock, but if these guys can really gel as a unit then the next one should be so much better.

Rating: 7/10

Links:
https://www.tonyharnell.com/
https://www.frontiers.it/