Hardline-Danger Zone

Frontiers Records
2012

It was probably about 7 years ago or so when I bid on a collection of misc. hard rock and heavy metal CDs on Ebay. I ended up as the winning bidder and as an added bonus the seller was kind enough to throw in Hardline's debut album, "Double Eclipse". Even though it wasn't groundbreaking to my ears I rather enjoyed the CD. Their cover of "Hot Cherie" was good and as a whole the album was above average AOR/hard rock. I'm not sure what I ever did with that CD. I either traded it in or gifted it to someone. Anyway, I have not heard anything from this band since so I was surprised to see this promo sitting there. For the record Hardline was formed in 1991 by brothers Johnny (vocals) and Joey (guitar) Gioeli, who had previously played in the bands Killerhit and Brunette , and Journey/Bad English guitarist Neal Schon. Despite being a pretty decent AOR/hard rock band (I always though they sound like a cross between Bad English and Giant) they were eventually killed off by the grunge movement. Since then the band has released two other studio-albums and a live album. On album number four vocalist Johnny Gioeli is joined by drummer Francesco Iovino (UDO), guitarist Thorsten Kohene (Code Of Perfection, Eden's Curse), bassist Anna Portalupi (Mitch Malloy) and Italian songwriter and producer Alessandro Del Vecchio (Edge of Forever) who handles keyboards and backing vocals. Musically this album again pulls from bands like Bad English and Giant as well as groups like Journey, Kiss, Mr. Big and various other melodic rock/hard rock bands of the eighties. Listening to "Danger Zone" I kept getting that feeling as if I had heard it before and yet that really didn't bother me too much. This is a great melodic rock/melodic hard rock album. Had this been released back in the late eighties it would have been huge. The thing is it does not sound dated. Instead Hardline take that old and familiar eighties melodic hard rock sound and give it a modern touch. The end result is a album that is full of catchy numbers, wonderful keyboard arrangements, nice guitar solos and the superb vocals of Johnny Gioeli. Album number four finds Hardline in top form. This is a must-have for fans as well as those that love great melodic rock/melodic hard rock.