Band : Toby Hitchcock
Album title : Mercury’s Down
Label : Frontiers Records
Distributor : Rough Trade Benelux.
Release Date : 26/08/2011
Release : CD

You might know this singer for his fabulous work with Pride Of Lions, with whom he recorded three albums,  and even did some live performances with (Lokerse Feesten, United Forces Of Rock), so I don’t think  I need to explain what a fabulous vocalist he is.

Toby’s voice, depending on the song, can be compared to Bobby Kimball (Toto), but in other songs he sounds very close to Jimi Jamison (Survivor) and even Lou Gramm (Foreigner) comes in the picture at times. With Pride Of Lions taking a break, Toby hooked up with Erik Martensson (Eclipse) under suggestion from Frontiers Records president Serafino Perugino.  This, to me turned out as a genious move, since this album is one of the best AOR/Hard rock albums I’ve heard this year. While Toby of course did all the vocals, all instruments were played by Erik Martenson, who also wrote all the tracks, and did the production.

This album I find sounds like the ultimate mix between Survivor and Journey. It has power, it had melodies, and it features an amazing power ballad ‘One day I’ll stop loving you’.

96/100

Erik Morren.