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Hell In The Club: See You On The Dark ...

Melodic Hard Rock/Metal

4.5/5.0

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Frontiers Music
Review: Craig Hartranft
Added: 06.09.2017

Music can make for strange bedfellows. Italy's Hell In The Club was formed by bass player Andrea "Andy" Buratto from progressive power metal band Secret Sphere. Their vocalist is Davide "Dave" Moras, the lead singer for folk metal band Elvenking. But Hell In the Club (HITC) plays neither progressive or folk metal, but rather Eighties melodic heavy metal in the Sunset Strip sleaze style. They return with their fourth album, See You On The Dark Side, now signed to the Frontiers Music label.

Hell In The Club

One thing can be said about Hell In The Club, they are consistent. They know their chosen genre inside and out. Call it what you wish, melodic hard rock with a metal edge or vice versa, and then drop in some punk nastiness. As I said of a previous HITC album, "Every song is big on melody, harmony, and groove with catchy hooks in both lyrics and arrangement. The rhythm section delivers a consistent rock groove and beat. Riffs bristle, and the solos soar. The vocal harmonies are smooth, and vocalist Davide 'Dave' Moras got some of that punk sneer necessary for this classic genre."

You got some catchy heavy metal rockers with A Melody A Memory, The Phantom Punch, Showtime, and We Are On Fire. All arena ready and radio accessible, you'll have to choose between pumping your fist or tapping your toe to the groove. Do both. For Hell In The Club's sardonic sense of humor there's the humorous Houston We've Got No Money. Yet the more impressive songs come when the band exercises some genre bending creativity. Within I Want To Swing Like Peter Parker they drop, appropriately, a bit of big band swing music, and it sounds really cool. Listen below. A Crowded Room, the last and longest song at almost eight minutes, mixes melodic rock with a touch of theatric carnival music in the center, then later a voice over piano segue to a symphonic outro. It's good to see Hell In The Club not standing still or resting on past laurels.

In the end, for See You On The Dark Side, Hell In The Club deliver what they do best, Eighties melodic heavy metal with hard rock groove with a side of Sunset Strip sleaze. Get it. Easily recommended.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

For See You On The Dark Side, Hell In The Club deliver what they do best, Eighties melodic heavy metal with hard rock groove and a side of Sunset Strip sleaze. Get it. Easily recommended.

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The Powell Payne project, created in 2022 is the collaboration of Mark "Penfold Powell (ex-drummer of Psycho Kiss) and Adam Payne (former vocalist of Airrace). With guitarist Adam Davies and keyboard player ... [ Read More ]