Hardline
Danger Zone

The current Hardline fully understands that they have as their legacy that "Double Eclipse" of 1992, an authentic bomb in terms of melodic hard rock, considering it featured the likes of Neal Schon on guitar and Dean Castronovo on drums, sacred monsters of the Journey.

By now that part of the band is no longer there and there is no foundation to recreate the original project, yet Johnny "giovanni battista" Gioeli, one of the best singers from the 90s onwards in hard music and beyond (remember, since 1998 he has been a stable part of the blonde Axel Rudi Pell's court), has never accepted the idea of letting it completely go, and thus in 2002 he resurrected them, surprisingly with his brother. "II" wasn't a bad album, but everyone expected a second Double Eclipse. The same happened with the following "Leaving The End Open" in 2009, more melodic than the previous and perhaps less successful.

Two decent albums therefore, but the bitterness remained for the fans of the frontline. In any case, we are in the 2000s, expecting a band to sound like they did ten or even twenty years prior is impossible, get used to it and that's it! And this new "Danger Zone"? No, this isn't like "Double Eclipse" either so don't expect a masterpiece, but "only" excellent melodic hard rock which gets close, if not the best alongside Trixter's, as far as this year's concerned! And be proud of this, because three-quarters of the band now consists of i-ta-lia-ns! Alessandro Del Vecchio on keyboards, Anna Portalupi on bass, and Francesco Iovino on drums! The only out of place one is guitarist Thorsten Koehne, although "out of place" is an awful term, seeing as, together with the always "eternal" Gioeli, they reign supreme in this hour of pure classy melodic hard rock.

And it's incredible and absurd that, despite 20 years having passed since that Double Eclipse, Gioeli sings at the exact same level! Either he's drunk from the fountain of youth or he has made a pact with the devil to have such a voice, otherwise I can't explain it!

An exemplary masterpiece of such a performance is the beautiful "Ten Thousand Reasons", endowed with a melody of infinite ecstasy and with a refrain impossible to reproduce. The finale then is hard to reject, with this "can't let go" sung and repeated multiple times which hardly keeps the mouth shut! The class is felt even in "Show Me Your Love", with a well-present rhythm section, a truly determined and sustained stride, and beautiful melodies.

This time the band is very cohesive, and it shows, compared to the two previous "transitional" works, just listen to "Stronger Than Me", excellently assisted by Alessandro's keyboards, who really outdoes himself to create superb melodies (and thank goodness we Italians do know how to write music, eh?). Very good also is the title track, "Danger Zone", in which this time it's the guitar that roars quite well. Worthwhile too is "What I'd Like", which though it echoes (and resembles quite a bit) Malmsteen's "Heaven Tonight", is truly intriguing. More melodic and tied to the elegance of the previous "Leaving..." are surely "Never Too Late For Love" and "Please Have Faith In Me", while I found "I Don't Wanna Breakaway" and "The Only One" slightly more ordinary.

To conclude, I particularly enjoyed two songs: the sweet and gentle "Look At You Now", a truly successful semi-ballad, simple and with very captivating choruses, and "Stay", a song with epic tones. As it happens, the only one I really couldn't digest is precisely the single and also the opening track "Fever Dreams", but don't be fooled because the rest is what counts.

An excellent effort then for Gioeli's Hardline, which I hope they manage to reproduce live the good that has been served. And after 20 years since their debut, that's no small feat!