Dario Mollo - Tony Martin
The Cage

This is a strange pair, or perhaps not. What is now a well-established duo for lovers of a certain hard rock, extremely scant in releases but fortunately not in quality, must have seemed quite a singular mix in the late '90s. What do a singer who held the microphone for Black Sabbath for a decade and an Italian guitarist perhaps known to most only for his tenure with the Ligurian band Crossbones have in common? Said like this, maybe not much, but when put to the test, the result can't help but satisfy. Once a respectful lineup was put together, practically a version 2.0 of Mollo's old band, bringing back Fulvio Gaslini on bass and Ezio Secomandi on drums along with a heavyweight like Don Airey back on keyboards, the two, who practically signed all the pieces, become protagonists of a classy hard rock, drawing heavily from tradition but without wanting to sound dated or retro.

The album, which comes with a rather unique cover (a tongue in a cage surrounded by electrodes!?), opens with the beautiful "Cry Myself to Death," a track with a rocky and syncopated pace that wouldn't have looked out of place on an album like "Cross Purposes," so to speak. Similarly, we cannot avoid mentioning the more measured tracks, perhaps those where Martin manages to give his best. "If You Believe," the compelling "Smoke and Mirrors," perhaps the best track on the entire album, and the closing "Soul Searching" highlight the qualities of a singer unjustly never too considered, but for twenty-five years synonymous with quality, lending his voice from time to time to a myriad of valuable projects (solo, Giuntini Project, Rondinelli..) without forgetting how, along with Ronnie James Dio, he was practically the only truly credible singer of the post-Ozzy Black Sabbath. The entire album is really well played, the tracks are varied and never repetitive, and the production is truly excellent, curated by Mollo himself. Well, perhaps the only aspect that might be genuinely debatable is precisely the production, with a sound perhaps too clean and sterile, typical of other Mollo projects, whereas a dirtier and more powerful sound might have suited the group's proposal better.

A note on the album and project's name: the first edition of the album was simply released under the name "The Cage," thus implying that it was both the title of the CD and the group's name. However, the subsequent records were all released under the name Dario Mollo - Tony Martin, a label that has since become the definitive name of the project, and even reissues of the debut have been published under that name, with "The Cage" then becoming just the album title and "Dario Mollo - Tony Martin" the album creators. A group with a very limited discography, as mentioned earlier: for the second installment, "The Cage 2," truly excellent and superior to the predecessor, one would have to wait until 2002, while for the third "The Third Cage," which confirmed the project's merit, another ten years would pass, with its release occurring about a year ago. And every now and then, fortunately, these albums are also performed live, with Dario Mollo now a steady presence in Tony Martin's Headless Cross, retracing together a career that seems unwilling to come to a halt.

1. "Cry Myself to Death" 
2. "Time to Kill"     
3. "The Cage/If You Believe"
4. "Relax"     
5. "Smoke and Mirrors"     
6. "Infinity"     
7. "Dead Man Dancin'"     
8. "This Kind of Love"       
9. "Stormbringer" (Deep Purple cover)   
10. "Soul Searching"