Review | Kent Hilli – Nothing Left To lose

Frontiers Music srl

Ever since coming on the scene with his band Perfect Plan in 2014 and releasing their first album ‘All Rise’ some four years later singer/composer Kent Hilli has been on a wild ride indeed. Within five years Perfect Plan has released three studio-albums, a cover-EP plus a live album. Hilli released his first solo-album ‘The Rumble’ and he was also singing on the latest Giant album (‘Shifting Time’). Rumour has it that a new Giant album will follow later this year. Add to that several guest performances on the Restless Spirit project by Lords Of Black guitarist Tony Hernando and you can say that Kent has been a very busy boy. To top it all off his second solo outing ‘Nothing Left To Lose’ will hit the shops in a few days.

NEW TEAM

On his previous album ‘The Rumble’ Kent Hilli combined forces with Michael Palace (Palace) who took care of all the instrumentation and production. No further outside help needed or involved. Palace plays just a minor part on ‘Nothing Left To Lose’ performing only on one song. Hilli has gathered a new and more extended team around him. Guitarist Jimmy Westerlund of the band One Desire is the most important role player contributing guitar parts, additional keyboards and together with Kent Hilli and bass player Ulrick Lonnqvist sharing production duties. Several other musicians also participated like Pete Alpenborg and the drummers Kai Hato and Felix Borg.

NO NEW BOUNDARIES

The style that Kent Hilli prefers is melodic AOR with several songs having a big hard rock bite. That has been the case on the three Perfect Plan albums and on ‘The Rumble’.  ‘Nothing Left To Lose’ is in the same vein. The album is filled with eleven melodic rock songs. The first part of the record is pretty energetic with songs such as ,,A Fool To Believe’’, ,,Too Young’’ and the title track. It all sounds very convincing and the pipes of Kent Hilli produce some brilliance indeed.

Throughout the whole album the singer is very impressive. That is something the album absolutely needs as there are also a few rather mediocre songs to be heard. The consistency is not completely there it seems. A track like ,,Heard It All Before’’ is ear in and out without making a real impression. Luckily there are enough strong points left to lift ‘Nothing Left To Lose’ to a very acceptable and for Hilli-fans even satisfying heights. Fact is though that no new boundaries have been explored on this record.

KENT HILLI – THE CONCLUSION AND FOOTNOTE

Not saying that the man is starting to repeat himself as he stands for a certain style. But maybe the ‘team’ should have looked a bit more critical towards the quality of one or two compositions. It is just a small footnote on my part. Pretty sure that the fans of the singer will lap this record up and so they should.

Release date: 4 August 2023