Dr Johnny Fever

This is a very good album IMO with a some great stand outs for me. It's a bit more on the soft and melodic side compared to the last one. Easily my favourite of the 4 ADV produced Hardline albums so far. If flows coherently from beginning to end IMO. Some of the previous ADV Hardline albums just felt like a bunch of random songs were written and were thrown together to create an album. Last album was also a step up compared to the previous two and I think the addition of guitarist Mario Percudani in the writing duties makes a big difference since left on his own, a lot the ADV songs sound exactly the same. Some of the guitar riffs and solos on this new album made me think that Neal Schon was guest appearing on a few songs. I really loved some of the bluesy guitar riffs on this album. We'll never get a Double Eclipse follow up given how much time has passed but this is a very good album in the Band's catalogue and one that I'll be revisiting a lot.

I still think this latest album is an improvement over the last 2 but Del Vecchio's overall influence is still evident on this album. Despite what Johnny says in interviews that he's heavily involved with a lot of the writing process, it appears to me that the majority of the heavy writing is still done by Del Vecchio. Del Vecchio's writing and production is not bad per se, it's just very safe as he tends to use the same song structures in all the songs he writes. There's nothing truly original there. Perhaps it's because he's involved in too many projects. Also, I had high hopes with the addition of the new guitarist on this latest Hardline album, but none of his solos on the album really stand out to me. Meanwhile, Neal Schon released a lovely cover of Prince's Purple Rain. I miss this type of melodic guitar playing on a Hardline album.

Got my copy of the album yesterday and I think it's very good after listening to it a few times. Definitely much improved effort over the last 2 albums IMO. Some fantastic rockers on this one.

The Queen cover is fantastic.

I listened to the samples for the rest of the album and it's definitely more heavy than the last 2 albums. Chameleon sounds pretty good to me. This will probably my favourite of the last 3 albums.

I would love for the original band to get together and record some tunes too. Johnny has mentioned in a few interviews that he is no longer the same writer or singer that he was back in the early 90's. The guy is over 50 now (and still sounds great IMO) but it shows his style of singing has changed since "Double Eclipse". In an interview last fall he mentioned that he doesn't sing "Can't Find My Way" or "Love leads the Way" in shows because he can't do them justice anymore. In an ideal world the original Band would have not broken up in the early 90s and gone on to record multiple albums together. Alas it just didn't happen. I'm okay with the new line as is, just the writing is not there for me and way too safe for a Hardline album. Del Vecchio often follows the same formula and while it might work for other artists, it doesn't work for me on a Hardline album. Who knows, maybe they'll surprise us on the new album.

IMO both Mario Percudani and Marco Di Salvia are great additions to the Band. I'm hoping that instead of focusing on the keyboards, the new album will focus more on these 2. FWIW, on the Band's facebook page they mentioned that the new album will include at least 1 acoustic song.

Big Hardline fan here and loved their first album when it came out in the early 90s. Shame the music industry changed over night and the band broke up before a truly follow up album came out. I listened to Human Nature again this weekend and while I was pretty enthusiastic about the album after hearing it the first time when it first came out, I now find it to be pretty safe just like many other albums released by Frontiers. The only song that really caught my attention was Trapped in Muddy Waters. Less keys and more guitars that way it should be for a Hardline song. Hardline is coming out with another album this year and I'm actually looking forward to it. I think the new guitarist Mario Percudani is a fantastic addition to the band.