Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: October 13, 2023
Production: Jacob Hansen
Album length: 53.57 min
Genre: Hard Rock/Melodic Rock
Rating: 8.5/10
Ronnie Atkins, the celebrated Danish rock and heavy metal vocalist and the ultimate frontman of legendary hard and heavy rockers Pretty Maids, came back in mid-October with his third solo studio album, »Trinity«.
No need to shout it from the rooftops anymore: since 2019, Atkins has been battling lung cancer. After getting through his first rounds of chemo that year and finding his feet again in 2020, he buried himself in his solo career. Between then and autumn 2023, he put out »One Shot« (RockLine review), followed in 2022 by his second studio album »Make It Count« (RockLine review), and then in November 2022 came the EP “Symphomaniac”, featuring songs from the album “Make It Count” rearranged in orchestral form.
Over the course of this year, Ronnie’s condition improved so much that he didn’t just record and write material for the new album »Trinity«, he even played a few shows. And there’s more! On October 25, 2023, Pretty Maids announced they’re returning to the stage in summer 2024 and confirmed the first dates. Looks like the singer is doing fine again. One hell of a run of good news, then.
So let’s run through what’s on »Trinity«. For the new album, Ronnie kept the winning combo by his side that produced his two excellent previous solo studio efforts. The key partnership here is the superb multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Chris Laney and the seasoned Danish sound engineer Jacob Hansen. That duo was once again in charge of arranging and producing the material, Atkins’s new album included.
»Trinity« clocks in at just under 54 minutes of music. Once again it’s soaked from top to bottom in anthemic melodies, hyper-catchy musical rhetoric that sticks in your ear right off the bat. Instantly. Pomp and bombast are again in abundance, and the choruses are the culmination of a crafty build-up, ramping up the mood from verse to pre-chorus and then into a typically explosive chorus crescendo. You catch it right away in the opening catalyst, the title track, while Paper Tiger (a bit later on the album) is a brilliantly sculpted arena march! Then there’s the outstanding Shine somewhere in the middle of the album, with one of the most ‘toxically’ invasive choruses on the record, which the one in the excellent semi-ballad Sister Sinister owes absolutely nothing to, and so on… Needless to say, in Laney, Atkins has gained an extremely important ally with a refined knack for putting songs together so that compactness and fiery musicality are fully optimized. Yes. You can feel these guys have the eighties in their blood, and the AOR influence on the songwriting and the final shape of the songs is pronounced this time too. The positive, upbeat rocker If You Can Dream it (You Can Do It) sounds the closest on the album to the old AOR/arena rock school.
»Trinity« is therefore at least on par with both predecessors, or even surpasses them in sophistication and attention to detail. But at the very least on par. And what we expected from Atkins and crew, we got. In all its splendor! And of course, the musical philosophy of the new album is decidedly close to and kindred with the character and work of Pretty Maids. Especially of the last two decades, or the last few studio albums.
From head to toe, Atkins’s new album brims with polish and, just like its predecessors, pulls off a top-notch mix of musical catchiness and hard rock gloss and drive, keeping up the high standard of this kind of expressionism Atkins showed on the previous two releases. Pick your own highlights; »Trinity« delivers the required variety and, of course, the most essential thing. Alongside the top-notch contributions of Atkins’s entire studio crew, there’s the irreplaceable vocal stamp of the one and only Ronnie Atkins! »Trinity« is thus another triumphant move from the legendary singer.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Trinity
2. Ode to a Madman
3. Paper Tiger
4. Soul Divine
5. Via Dolorosa
6. Godless
7. Shine
8. If You Can Dream It
9. Sister Sinister
10. Raining Fire
11. The Unwanted
12. What If
Line-up:
Ronnie Atkins- vocals, backing vocals
Chris Laney- guitar, keyboards
Pontus Egberg- bass guitar
Allan Sörensen- drums
Marcus Sunesson – guitar
Linnéa Vikström Egg – backing vocals
