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Among the many Norwegian bands, I truly hold only Stage Dolls close to my heart, champions of a beautifully melodic hard rock, and these TNT who, on the other hand, play melodic heavy metal! Both are from Trondheim, a quiet town nestled halfway through a fjord in central Norway, which has just over two hundred thousand inhabitants (the third most populous in that nation) and apparently many of them are busy playing in rock bands... a nice place!
However, TNT found themselves an American singer: none other than Tony Harnell from San Diego (I mean! A place a stone's throw from Mexico where in summer it averages 35°C and in winter around 25…I wonder what drives him to live in Norway). He is equipped with a powerful and clear voice, although in the early albums it was somewhat too shrill and forced on the high notes, later rightly brought back to more natural heights, with a significant gain in expressiveness and tone.
But TNT means above all Ronnie Le Tekro, a guitarist and genuine human machine gun, capable of picking frequencies that, to put it in French, make Malmsteen, McLaughlin, Morse, Gilbert pale in comparison. The prodigious musician from Oslo doesn’t abuse this talent of his, generally preferring to build melodic arches of good and distinctive substance in his solos. Every now and then, here and there, he sets his right arm in motion, and his ESP guitar transforms into a real drill. His unique agility on his instrument is also reflected in the rhythms, which are very tight and impeccable, highly varied and dynamic. Essentially, he is one of those musicians impossible to imitate for those who like to practice guitar at a high level, because he plays in a very “difficult” and personal way, stealing the scene in TNT from the singer and the rhythm section with creative and flashy accompaniments and solos.
The work in question is from 2005, the ninth in a discography that currently numbers thirteen. The tracks to listen to are, to start with, “Too Late” but only for the solo, which has a terrifying incipit; then the melodic “Driving” with an elegant and insistent riff that extends beneath the choruses; the title piece of the entire album also stands out, with its Sabbath-like riff that fully exploits the unsettling diminished fifth, the fateful “devil's interval.”
One cannot help but highlight the very peculiar choice regarding the only cover: it is “What a Wonderful World,” celebrated for Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong's 1967 interpretation. A piece covered by hundreds of artists, certainly all far from heavy metal, but here TNT fills that gap… Last mention goes to the very tight “Black Butterfly” which in the bridge offers passages curiously similar to the legendary “Immigrant Song” from Zeppelinian memory; Le Tekro’s solo in it rattles off four hundred and twenty-two notes in a scant thirty seconds, all rigorously picked one by one.
Records like this are needed every now and then: vigorous yet musical, fun, even pyrotechnic thanks to Ronnie Le Tekro's guitar, a masterful example.
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