HARDLINE Heart, Mind and Soul | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

Released by Frontiers Records s.r.l. on July 9th, 2021

Quick Background

Hardline is an American hard rock band, well mostly Italian now. Originally formed in 1991 by brothers Johnny and Joey Gioeli. Johnny remains the only original member of the band and since 1998 also the singer on Axel Rudi Pell's band. In 2011, Gioeli confirmed that he and Italian keyboard player and producer Alessandro Del Vecchio of Edge of Forever and Eden's Curse would release Hardline's fourth studio album Danger Zone. Two more albums followed and now we are getting their 7th LP. After buying Axel Rudi Pell's Oceans of Time (1998), I remember going back and listening to Hardline debut because I wanted to check out Johnny's performance. It was worth it as he's a great singer, but that's the only Hardline album I own.  

Heart, Mind and Soul 

Two years after the album Life, Hardline is back with 50 minutes of progressive melodic hard rock in 11 tracks. To me Hardline shines with their hard rocking anthemic songs. Fortunately we get plenty of those on Heart, Mind and Soul such as "The Curse", the opener "Fuel to the Fire" which is an up-tempo rocker featuring an unusual into of vocal singing the guitar riff in a duo. "Waiting for Your Fall" has that energy of a concert opener. "Heartless" gives me the vibes of a 80's prog rock song, almost AOR, it's another favorite of mine. On that note, there's actually a song called "80's Moment". The single "Surrender" is one of the best songs on the album, great guitarwork and melodic vocal lines. Also great rocking energy.   

Talking about vocals, singer Johnny Gioeli, as usual, is in top form, providing a powerful and energetic vocal performance that is contagious. Take "Heavenly" for example. Great emotional performance from him. Despite being a mid-tempo song, it's quite progressive, the longest song on the album with almost 7 minutes. It's a keyboard based song but the guitar solos are prominent. Which brings us to the point of Mario Percudani’s guitar work. He was able to really deliver some cool hard rock riffs and engaging solos. The tight rhythm section of Anna Portalupi and Marco Di Salvia is locked in and delivers. All supported by Alessandro Del Vecchio's keyboards. 

The Picky Guy

My issue with the album is when the band goes too much into cheesy territory with mid-tempo songs and ballads. It's not that they are bad, but definitely not my thing. In that case even the lyrics start to bother me. "If I Could I Would" or "Like That", are examples of this problem. And the fact is that a third of the album suffers from this problem which has a implication on the overall score.

Wrap Up Opinion 

Hardline is capable of delivering some hard rock anthems that will stick to your brains and make you bang your head. About 2/3 of Heart, Mind and Soul will do just that. Moreover they accomplish that supported by great musicianship specially due to singer Johnny Gioeli and guitar player Mario Percudani. Now this is a bit personal but the album suffers from too many ballads leading me to, still consider a good album, but in the lower side of the scale with 79/100. With that said, if you enjoy melodic hard rock, you can't go wrong with Hardline. 

SCORE: 79/100

Genre: Hard Rock

Released by Frontiers Records s.r.l. on July 9th, 2021

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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