They say that good things come in threes. This is most certainly the case for the solo output of Pretty Maids singer Ronnie Atkins. His solo debut, One Shot, was released in 2021, giving fans a healthy helping of melodic hard rock while Pretty Maids was on ice. A year later followed Make It Count, which saw Atkins go down a more AOR direction in the vein of Foreigner and Journey. Now in 2023, the iconic singer goes for a hat trick with his latest solo outing, the aptly titled Trinity.
Unlike his last two efforts, Trinity is Atkin’s heaviest solo album to date. While One Shot and Make It Count have their metal moments, at least half of Trinity can be classified as melodic metal. The other half falls largely into the melodic hard rock/AOR vein characteristic of a Frontiers release. That being said, it’s this metal edge that pushes Trinity in favor of being my favorite Atkins solo album to date. After all, first and foremost, Atkins is a metal singer. It’s no wonder he’s so at home singing this more aggressive material.
This aforementioned melodic metal approach is showcased on the opening title track. Bombastic and striking in the vein of latter day Pretty Maids, Atkins’ iconic vocals flow with fiery passion against a backdrop of heavy riffs and grandiose strings. “Ode to a Madman” continues the heavy assault, albeit with emphasis on its larger than life chorus. As Trinity progresses, we’re treated to these various nuggets of heaviness. Some veer on the doomy (“Godless”) while others border on the progressive (“Raining Fire”), but what they all have in common is a knack for infectious melodies and musical excellence.
As for the rest of Trinity, it showcases the more accessible side of Atkins’ work that we’ve also known and loved for all these years. The echoes of Pretty Maids classics like “Rodeo” and “Savage Heart” can be heard on cuts like “Paper Tiger”, “Shine”, and “If You Can Dream It (You Can Do It)”. All of these songs are uplifting, both musically and lyrically, and carry themselves as would be hit singles if they were released 35 years earlier. Again, songs of this nature are par the course for a Frontiers release, but Atkins and his band deliver them with more passion than your run of the mill melodic hard rock outfit.
Some may be turned off by the half melodic metal, half AOR hybrid of an album that is Trinity, asking Atkins, “Why not just play one or the other?” These “some” can be categorized as, for a lack of better terminology, morons. It’s this very approach that established Pretty Maids as one of the most unique acts of the euro metal scene in the ’80s. Sure, they could lay down high speed, scorching power metal. They could also craft AOR arena-shakers that should’ve broken them into the US market. Atkins continues to tow this line faithfully as ever as a solo act, a sole Pretty Maid in a “Future World”.
7 out of 10
Label: Frontiers Records
Genre: AOR
For fans of: Pretty Maids, Eclipse, Nordic Union