Review: Danger Zone – Shut Up!
Pride & Joy Music (September 20th, 2024)
Reviewer: Grant Foster
Ready to enter the Danger Zone?
The press blurb tells me they are one of the most popular veteran Hard Rock bands that Italy has produced.
So, big fish in a small pond.
The press release also tells me this is their fifth album since their inception in the early 80’s and that due to the pandemic, the band reconvened and decided to return the ‘sound reminiscent of the golden era of American melodic hard rock.’
So – Shut Up! No seriously, that’s what the album is called!
For fans of Whitesnake, Coldspell, Wheels of Fire, Magnum, Danger Danger apparently. (Press blurb again!)
So here I am, up against a Friday deadline, it’s Tuesday and I’m just letting this caress my ears for the first time and I’ve never heard of this band.
I’m three tracks in….the second song ‘Evil‘, is anything but.
First thoughts. Erm, it sounds produced, there’s no doubt these guys – Giacomo, Roberto, Paolo, Matteo, Danilo and Pier – can play. The vocals are surprisingly good, what with English not being Giacomo’s native language. It’s pleasant enough stuff.
Boom! Then the fourth track ‘I Don’t Care‘ thunders forth amid a mighty guitar intro and the whole thing takes off. Suddenly there’s some weight, some muscle to it all. Where it was just cruising safely, it ups the ante.
Now the question is, can they keep this up?
Shut Up! No seriously, I’m trying my hardest here to be serious.
The next track aims for the mean and moody approach and falls in between both. Damn, it was going so well. Don’t get me wrong, the vocal melodies on this album are really very good, but, that’s only part of the equation. Giacomo is a fine singer too.
(The snare sound is now getting annoying.) I’m looking for a little more of the quality of song four. ‘Run (From The Madness)‘ nearly delivers.
Oh, ‘Faithless Ways‘, what did you really want to be? So near, yet so far…
The first single was ‘Evil‘, I listen to it again. Maybe I just need to let it sink in a bit more?
It’s not bad by any means & you can see exactly what they are aiming for. All the parts are there, but as Andre Previn famously said on the Morecambe and Wise show – Not necessarily in the right order.
I’d like to see them live. Maybe they are a little more up and at them onstage.
Or am I missing the point?
Can I give them a solid 7?
Track list:
1. I Like It
2. Evil
3. Tell Me The Truth
4. I Don’t Care
5. Too Late
6. Run (From The Madness)
7. I’ll Make It Right
8. Hurt
9. When You Broke My Soul
10. Faithless Ways
11. Straight Down The Line
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