Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: July 9, 2021
Production: Alessandro Del Vecchio
Album length: 49.39 min
Rating: 9.0/10
Genre: Hard Rock
Hardline, formed in 1991, with two cult albums in the nineties and a revival in 2009, are back two years after the release of “Life” (2019, RockLine review) with its follow-up, “Heart, Mind And Soul”. We’ve finally got two Hardline albums in a row recorded with an unchanged lineup. Today’s Hardline is quite different from the American band that came together in the early nineties, and it started taking its current shape with the album “Human Nature” (2016). These days Hardline is a lineup of Italian musicians. Well, not entirely. Johnny Gioeli – by now pretty much an iconic hard rock vocalist – comes from Brooklyn, New York, even if he has Italian roots. That’s hardly worth mentioning, except as context for the band’s gradual transition, lineup-wise, into a ‘de facto’ Italian outfit. A band that has spent more than ten years under the wing of the no less Italian label Frontiers Music Srl.
And only the music counts. Led by an unshakable, incredibly heartfelt vocalist with a completely distinctive, instantly recognizable voice – something like an imaginary mix of Jon Bon Jovi, the unforgettable (sadly late) Gotthard singer Steve Lee and Sebastian Bach – Hardline really nailed their songwriting with “Human Nature” (2016). From there they stepped it up another notch, both expressively and creatively, with the even more cohesive “Life”, only to head into this summer with their newest album, which counts as the best since the band became active again.
Obviously, bringing guitarist Mario Percudani on board added that last crucial element, so Gioeli and his crew can finally catch the full creative wind in freshly renewed sails. As is clear and as it should be, the whole story once again revolves around the hugely striking, unmistakable and one of the most distinctive voices in hard rock: Johnny Gioeli. Once again he delivers a more than brilliant, breathtaking vocal performance. The emotion comes pouring out, and there’s no shortage of commitment and sensuality at any step of this album. After all these long years in the music business, Gioeli remains a wonderful, incredible singer. And the guy has an excellent musical crew around him. That goes especially for the all-around talent Alessandro Del Vecchio, which is a guarantee that nothing can go wrong with the songwriting and production of any new material. This time is no exception.
“Heart, Mind And Soul” is the band’s most accomplished, defined and polished effort since their 2009 reactivation with “Leaving The End Open”. Eleven polished and varied hard rock tracks, ‘blood-sworn’ to chasing soaring melodies, especially in the vocal lines, which grab you hard and, on first listen, hit you instantly. That goes for every moment of the album. Whether it’s the punchy opener, the piercing, bristling Fuel To The Fire, or one of the album’s best songs, one that would have been a massive hit by a mile in the eighties, the phenomenal Surrender (with a lead phrase that has jazzy patterns slipped into it – as if someone like Steve Lukather had whispered it to the band). Then there are the brilliant, punchy ballads Heavenly, which bursts with Gioeli’s romanticism and a superb, extended instrumental outro, and Searching For Grace, where Hardline build a distinctly bombastic, theatrical drama. Those aren’t the only strong moments on the album. In fact, it’s hard to pick favorites. If I Could I Would, the acoustically boosted Like That and the aforementioned ballad Heavenly calm the album down (after the explosive opening). They’re kin to the essence of eighties AOR, and what holds them up is the excellent build into captivating chorus melodies. The second half of the album, meanwhile, is perfectly loaded with wreckers like Heartless, Waiting For Your Fall and the heavy-rolling The Curse. So you won’t miss real hard rock detonations at all. The closing acoustic ballad We Belong should be taken as a bonus track. A hugely likable piece that would sooner belong on Gioeli’s solo album “One Voice” (2018, RockLine review). That’s why it’s tacked on at the tail end.
An album that won’t let lovers of classic hard rock, soaked in the pomp and bombast inherited from the AOR tradition, catch their breath for even a second. It holds you tight and doesn’t let go. The voltage of high-octane explosiveness is incredible, expertly balanced by the ultra-musical nature and the mid-tempo and balladic moments of the album. And none of it would exist without the fact that Johnny Gioeli is surrounded by top-notch musicians. A vocalist who actually deserves that kind of excellence beside him. Both in performance and in songwriting.
“Heart, Mind And Soul” is also, production-wise, one of the band’s most bristling albums to date. At times it’s a distinctly guitar-driven rock album. Of course, we’re only comparing albums the band put out between 2009 and 2021 (the nineties are a story of their own, naturally). The sonic spectrum is lavish, vivid and bursting at the seams, so cunningly and optimally is it used and filled. Simply put, the crew is incredibly experienced, and Alessandro Del Vecchio – surely one of the most-cited musicians here on our beloved RockLine – absolutely shines in his finesse and fine-tuned touches (in the producer’s role). He’s created a sound that speaks in a very classic hard rock voice. “Heart, Mind And Soul” belongs among the top releases of the year in the (melodic) hard rock field. An album the band should be more than rightfully proud of, an album that deserves a generous showcase on concert stages and an album that fills us with big new expectations for the future, because it’s clear that with this approach Hardline are nowhere near saying their last word.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Fuel To The Fire
2. Surrender
3. If I Could I Would
4. Like That
5. Heavenly
6. Waiting For Your Fall
7. The Curse
8. Heartless
9. Searching For Grace
10. ‘80s Moment
11. We Belong
Lineup:
Johnny Gioeli – vocals
Alessandro Del Vecchio – keyboards, backing vocals
Mario Percudani – guitar
Anna Portalupi – bass guitar
Marco Di Salvia – drums
Hm, kaj pa vem. Produkcija je res dobra, tudi pesmi so slišati dobro. Ampak nisem prepričan, da so to Hardline. Na wikipedii piše, da so Hardline ameriški band, tale zasedba pa me bolj spominja na Johnny Gioeli solo band na evropski klubski turneji. Ko sem jih pred leti videl na Rock of Ages, je bil vsaj še Josh Ramos zraven.
Čeprav je Perugino s Frontiers naredil zares veliko za revitalizacijo hard rocka in AOR, in sem v začetku tisočletja njihove albume nabavljal kot zmešan; pa me v zadnjih letih vedno bolj moti neskončno število projektov, pa tudi vseprisotnost Alessandra Del Vecchia in Magnusa Karlssona.
Ja res je. Sej dejansko je nekako tako razdelan tudi prvi odstavek recenzije, primerjave novega albuma s starejšimi, pa se v članku “zvito” držijo samo ere delovanja skupine od leta 2009 navzgor, četudi je Ramos tudi kasneje še nekaj časa sodeloval s Hardline.
To glede Del Vecchia – mi pa bereš misli. To sem sam večkrat omenjal v recenzijah. Ponekod je dobro da je poleg, po drugi plati pa založba ‘vsiljuje’ nekatere projekte izpuhtelih ‘metalskih krp’ kot so bivši pevci recimo Crimson Glory ali Metal Church, ki niti niso peli na klasičnih albumih teh skupin, a jim je sodelovanje z Del Vecchiom prineslo mehkejši princip komponiranja. Vokali so preostri za tak stil. Ta slog Del Vecchia je na teh projektih (izdani albumi) naredil prej medvedjo uslugo, kot kaj posebej omembe vrednega. 😀
Dejansko ta stvar tud mene precej ‘živčnega’ dela. Isto je bilo z Magnusom, ki se je vseeno, vsaj dozdeva se tako, zadnja leta malo umiril, njegovo vlogo je precej zapolnil Del Vecchio.