Band : Seven The Hardway
Album title : Seven The Hardway
Label : Mascot Records
Distributor : PIAS
Release date : 23/08/2010
Release : CD

Although the recordings of this new supergroup (wait for explanations) were done by each of the 3 pivoting member individually in different studios (I'm guessing their own home studios), I'm sure Tony MacAlpine (guitars, bass, occasional keyboads), Mark Boals (vocals) and Virgil Donato (drums) sent mp3-files back and forth over the Internet in order to let each other know what they were up to, allow for small interferences with each other's work when necessary for the material. Also, although this sounds like a studio project in the making, it was Tony's explicit wish to get into a band situation again!

The “supergroup” thing? Well, you need only look at the components, really! Both MacAlpine, Boals and Donato are respected and successful musicians in their own field (and for once I'll not get into details about each of these guys...just check their individual pages on Wikipedia if you wanna know more), and of course they've worked together before (as a threesome on Mark Boals' 2000 solo album Ring Of Fire, the duo of MacAlpine and Donato on 3 out of 4 Planet X albums to date – a new one is apparently in the making).

Expect a nice mixture of fierce Progressive Rock and Metal with soaring vocals (Boals backed himself up, and if you know his work from Royal Hunt or Yngwie Malmsteen, you already know he's known for his trademark clean high notes), the combination of which will take you gasping for air during and after each 45-minutes listening session of the album. In fact, after a first session you'll probably be holding your breath in anticipation befóre you push the play button on your cd-player as well! To get you acquainted with the material, the band has posted 3 full-length songs at myspace.com/seventheardway. There should be just enough time for you to pick up the album and give it a good run-through, because on September 16 (and that should be right after this is posted) the band (the threesome fortified with bassist Doug Shreeve and 21 year-old Argentinian newcomer guitarist Estefania Daniel) kicks off a European tour at De Boerderij in Zoetermeer, Holland, which will see them play at Spirit Of 66 in Verviers, Belgium on the 22nd. Check out their live performance, because the band's blistering 10-track album sure promises a more than energetic show! Great album, and given more time to listen to it I'm sure I would bombard it into my year-lists!

94/100

Tony.