Review | CoreLeoni – Alive

Metalville Records

The fourth album by CoreLeoni and their fourth record company as well! It suggests that the second band of Gotthard boss Leo Leoni struggles to sell their product. As we know Leoni started this outfit some years ago. On the first two records, he re-recorded the bulk of the old Gotthard songs (from the Steve Lee-era) with singer Ronnie Romero, adding only two new compositions. For the album ‘III’ Romero was not available anymore so they introduced new singer Eugent Bushpepa. ‘III’ counted only four old Gotthard tracks, a Rolling Stones cover (,,Jumping Jack Flash’’) and ten freshly composed songs. ‘III’ was not bad at all, energetic, and full of melodic classic rock.

A CROSS BETWEEN

We found on ‘III’ that mister Bushpepa did not mind a scream or two into the higher regions and that his voice was a cross between Steve Lee, Ronnie Romero, and current Gotthard singer Nic Maeder. For sure not a bad choice for Leoni’s second outfit and on stage Eugent Bushpepa does not disappoint either. It shall not come as a surprise that the song material consists mainly of old Gotthard songs like ,,Mountain Mama’’, ,,Downtown’’, ,,Angel’’ (with an excellent vocal!), ,,Fist In Your Face’’, ,,Standing In The Light’’, ,,Firedance’’, and ,,All That I Care For’’ while two relative ‘new’ songs from ‘III’ (,,Let Life Begin’’ and ,,Purple Dynamite’’) are featured as well. The band CoreLeoni consists of seasoned musicians so the execution of the music is pretty good and the energy level high.

CORELEONI FUTURE

I have always found it strange that Leo Leoni started this group. I mean, Gotthard is still alive and kicking and he is the main man there. Not that I mind this group, far from, but what kind of future does this band have if you are constantly rehashing your own past of a band that you are still part of yourself? The fact that Coreleoni for each of their releases changed record company does not really speak for their longevity as well. ‘Alive’ is an okay record but it does not add a lot to the handful of live-albums that Gotthard released themselves during the years.

Release date: 27 October 2023