Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: 13.07.2018
Production: Alessandro Del Vecchio
Album length: 51:04
Genre: AOR / Melodic Rock
Johnny Gioeli and Deen Castronovo are old acquaintances from Hardline’s golden days. Both are also very familiar faces at Frontiers Music Srl. Since the road they’ve traveled is written in the genres of AOR, melodic rock and hard rock, the idea of joining forces is a total no-brainer.
Castronovo, who has evidently clawed his way out of the troubles that plagued his private life over the last few years and who now “clocks in” with The Dead Daisies, is not only an exceptionally good drummer but also a more than solid singer. That’s worth exploiting. Journey did exactly that, letting him step up to the lead vocal spot for two songs a night on tour. It’s honestly incredible how close Deen can get, with his vocal character, intonation and the way he colors his verses, to the former frontman of AOR legends Journey, Steve Perry. In Ride Of Your Life he uses a similar approach in the chorus to the one he used at Journey shows on Keep on Running. Johnny Gioeli, meanwhile, is one of the most distinctive voices in rock, well known to fans of Axel Rudi Pell too. In short, a guy whose special vocal charisma always adds value to any album by any artist.
No surprise that Italian names go together, right? Frontiers Music Srl. “donated” three studio helpers to put this album together. One of them you can guess blindfolded. Yep. Alessandro Del Vecchio. Once again he contributed the bulk of the arrangements (the ballad Mother could have run for the Sanremo song festival back in the eighties), played all the keyboards and, on top of that, produced the album. Del Vecchio is also a current member of Hardline, and he and Gioeli know each other very well.
»Set the World On Fire« is an AOR/melodic rock record. Given that in this genre, pretty obscure today but thriving in the eighties, everything has pretty much been invented already, the album naturally brings no musical revolution. Predictability, outstanding musical catchiness, with musical peaks in singable choruses, which are an integral element of every good AOR composition. Complete with shimmering backing vocals and curtains of synths rolling over the prominent guitar phrasing, of course. The trick of this album lies elsewhere: in the happy combination of the two singers’ vocal characters. They make an enviable contrast, and their shared vocal output alone (the duets) packs a huge density into the sonic space of the songs’ musical landscape. They’re at the center of everything going on. In the verses they often split the lines.
It’s honestly hard to single out highlights amid such general compositional predictability. There are definitely too many songs (twelve), even though the inserted solos add an excellent dose of variety, and the album is also dotted with changes of pace, which the ballads naturally bring too (surely one or two of them are surplus to requirements). And they certainly don’t all grab you in the same way. So this album is aimed at listeners who keep up with what Revolution Saints and the new (and old) Hardline are doing, and who feel at home with the golden era of AOR (Journey, Bad English). »Set the World on Fire« is a really nice album. AOR fans will be satisfied. It just carries a few too many tracks.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 8.0 / 10
Tracklist:
1. Set The World On Fire
2. Through
3. Who I Am
4. Fall Like An Angel
5. It’s All About You
6. Need You Now
7. Ride Of Your Life
8. Mother
9. Walk With Me
10. Run For Your Life
11. Remember Me
12. Let Me Out
Lineup:
Johnny Gioeli – vocals
Deen Castronovo – vocals, drums
Alessandro Del Vecchio – keyboards, backing vocals
Mario Percudani – guitar
Nik Mazzucconi – bass
