To the casual rock fan, Hardline is merely a footnote in the history of famed guitarist Neal Schon, falling roughly post-Bad English, but pre-Journey reunion. Of course, I type this assuming the casual rock fan is even aware of Hardline. This is a band who, had they formed just a few years earlier, would likely receive regular classic rock radio airplay today. Instead, they dropped their classic debut album, Double Eclipse (1992), in the heart of the grunge era and hardly received any airplay to begin with. Within a few years, their record deal would be gone and so would Schon who abandoned the group after making little headway.
Despite having all the cards stacked against them, Hardline persisted. Not only did they weather the storm of grunge and nu metal, but they did so while staying true to their original sound and identity. Since reforming nearly 20 years ago, the band has released a string of top tier melodic rock albums. Their lineup has changed too many times to count, but the one constant force is singer Johnny Gioeli, who alongside keyboardist Alessandro Del Vecchio and the good folks at Frontiers Records, helms the ship on the band’s seventh album, Heart, Mind and Soul.
Like every Hardline album before it, Heart, Mind and Soul is a clinic in what an AOR album should be. It showcases all the elements and aspects of the genre with passion and heart (no pun intended). You’ve got a lethal dose of gritty old school hard rock in tracks like “Fuel to the Fire”, “The Curse”, and “Heartless”. I always felt this hard rock side of Hardline is what Whitesnake would’ve sounded like had they not jumped the shark (objectively speaking) with Slip of the Tongue (1989). My case still stands. Then you’ve got a sprinkling of straightforward AOR. “If I Could I Would” and “Like That” boast the melodies, lyricism, and power of classic Survivor. After all, there is a touch of Jim Peterik in every AOR album ever made.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an AOR album (or a Frontiers release for that matter) without your obligatory power ballads. Heart, Mind and Soul features three: “Heavenly”, “Searching for Grace”, and “We Belong” (not to be confused with the Pat Benatar song of the same name). Of these three, only “Heavenly” feels necessary, serving as a showcase for Gioeli’s vocals. The other two come off as forced and generic, with the closing “We Belong” nearly derailing the pace of the entire album. However, my choice cut, “Waiting for Your Fall”, makes up for this double disappointment. An ultra heavy song by Hardline standards, “Waiting for Your Fall” is a high speed headbanger filled with power metal riffs and pounding drums. One can only dream what Hardline would be capable of if they attempted a full metal album.
If Heart, Mind and Soul proves anything, it’s that Hardline is consistently consistent. There’s nothing you’ll hear on this album that’s out of the ordinary and that’s just how I like it. No surprises, no frills, no nonsense: Hardline continues to crank out melodic hard rock gold as only they can.
7 out of 10
Label: Frontiers Records
Genre: AOR
For fans of: Whitesnake, House of Lords, Talisman