DANGER ZONE: Don't Count On Heroes (MELODIC HARD ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Born in 1982, a period when hard FM/AOR was at its peak, Danger Zone, the Italian group of guitarist Roberto Priori, believed his career was on the road to success when his first album "Victim Of Time" was released in 1984. But Nirvana's "Bleach" is released in 1989 and the grunge tidal wave plunged into a long coma the second opus recorded, but not released, by the Bolons. 22 years later "Line Of Fire" emerged from limbo and was released on the market. The Transalpins are pugnacious, and this release, worthy of the phoenix's rebirth, motivated the combo to release two albums since then ("Undying" in 2012 and "Closer To Heaven" in 2016) followed by this "Don't Count On Heroes" ths year. The sextet at work here includes three former musicians. The aforementioned guitarist, the frontman Giacomo Gigantelli and the drummer Paolo Palmieri. Thirty-seven years of fidelity to the Danger Zone concept after a two-decade black hole, it's called consistency.

The hard rock FM of yesteryear is still in place. The 80's invade the tracks, sending back the listener into the MTV video era. However, under the pretext that this was too often the case, do not think that the Italians are as easy, in terms of instrumental technicality, as they are on the melodies developed on the eleven tracks of this "Don't Count On Heroes". And don't think that they have been watered down either. The two guitarists muscled this production to a certain extent and scattered it with solos that could make some envious, the opus having an additional quality with the voice rather harsh for a singer of this obedience.

Thus, even if four tracks - sometimes close to Journey - are in quiet mode, the others have robust rhythms. "Demon Or Saint" which opens the record, "Down To Passion" and its surprising interlude at the Hammond, the hectic "Breakaway" are among them. As a result, this production finally turns out to be somewhat split between AOR and melodic hard rock. If the lyrics are not original, the listening brings its share of satisfactions, no doubt about it.

So let's congratulate Danger Zone for this little pleasure and encourage it to remain pugnacious and offer us a successor to this "Don't Count On Heroes". Classicism is not a defect if the work is done with motivation and know-how, and this is the case here. - Official website

DANGER ZONE

DON'T COUNT ON HEROES

PRIDE & JOY MUSIC

MELODIC HARD ROCK