Pink Cream 69
Thunderdome

We had to wait two and a half years to see the light (or shadow?) on the new album by Pink Cream 69, the penultimate studio album, not counting the recent Past And Present (an excellent live album for those who want to get to know them!).

Indeed, Thunderdome, which was released in the early months of 2004, is, for now, the last great album by PC 69. Putting aside the forays into melodic hard rock, Pink Cream 69 return to playing hard and making seriously good hard rock with the power elements that characterized them so much during the Deris era. It's a phenomenal album, with gut-busting songs (and there's even a successful ballad!) and a scream-worthy production (unlike the last and terrible, strange but true, In10sity). I remember going to see them at the Tradate Festival in Varese, and they were simply amazing! I went there with my ex at the time (a real pain!) and seeing Zafiriou smoking and drumming during a ballad was one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen!

Little curiosity: from this album on (even if not mentioned in the booklet), the second guitarist Uwe Reitenauer joined the band.

This time the intro is called "The Last Stance": a helicopter noise slowly fades away to make room for a massive riff and an effective stadium chorus that brings to life one of the rockiest PC 69 songs in six years, namely "Thunderdome": fantastic guitar interplay along with an impeccable rhythm section and a feeling that the group seemed to have lost. Following is the semi-power "Gods Come Together" which finally features the kind of choruses you'd expect, and the kind that God, Ronnie James (RIP) would want! It’s a fairly overused song, to be honest, but very enjoyable. Another masterpiece is the rocky "Carnaby Road", with one of the best performances by Koffler and the newly arrived second guitarist. What makes the song beautiful is the (finally wise!) use of keyboards. The ending, in particular, is beautifully crescendoed, with an exemplary Readman. "Here I Am" is more standard, although this time the standard is much higher: arpeggios with counterbalances and sharp riffs from pure German school and a bass so dizzying it gives you vertigo! Not to mention that drum machine Zafiriou. The first half of the album closes with the beautiful ballad in the style of Gotthard "That Was Yesterday", complete with panty-dropping and bra-dropping piano.

The second part opens with the galactic "Shelter" and we tip our hats once again: spatial intro for a biting hard rock and keyboards as sharp as an axe, with well-placed choruses and a simply irresistible refrain! "Retro Lullaby" at first glance seems banal, but halfway through the song, the surprise arrives: supercharged tempo change as happened on two songs from Games People Play! A downside is the cover of "My Sharona" by The Kinks: as a remake, it's not bad, but let's say it didn't seem top-notch to me. A notch above is "As Deep As I Am": it's a more introspective song with perfectly timed paced rhythms. The album closes with "Another Wrong Makes Right", another weak link in this album along with My Sharona, a song way too recycled in my opinion, and finally the ballad "See Your Face", with an immense Readman and a truly sublime melody with really excellent songwriting this time.

Thunderdome is one of the best episodes of these last Pink Cream. A decisively well-made album with no mincing words (at most in the lower parts!). In this album, the whole group had regained a certain cohesion (and you can hear it in the songs). Let's say then that the rating would be 4.5, but I want to be a bit strict because it has a few minor anomalies. Things will definitely get worse after 3 years with their (current) last album, In10sity. In the end, I recommend it to all hard rock lovers and more.