THE DEFIANTS-The Defiants

Frontiers Music srl

The CD cover looks very cool. The three band members dressed up as cowboys from the Wild West. Canadian born vocalist Paul Laine has made some excellent solo albums (‘Stick It In Your Ear’ is a cracker). Bruno Ravel (keyboards/bass) has been the main composer for the group Danger Danger for many years and also guitarist Rob Marcello plays in that New York based band. Laine has been the singer for Danger Danger in the period 1992-2004, so all musicians are known to and familiar with each other. So, is it strange that the music that this trio makes has some trademarks of Danger Danger? Not at all. With guest drummer Van Romaine (an associate from Ravel, he played with him on a live album from female German singer Nena, yes that chick with the 99 air balloons) behind the kit, the boys from The Defiants bring us a combination of melodic ballads and up tempo easy listening party rock with the necessary sharp edges. ,,Love And Bullets” is a hard and heavy energetic track followed by ,,When The Lights Go Down”, also up tempo with great vocal lines and a slight Danger Danger feel. The only song that disappoints is ,,Lil Miss Rock ‘N’ Roller”, it sounds a bit boring and seems to be written without any inspiration. Paul Laine has not lost any of his vocal abilities and sounds really convincing and at ease on this record. ,,Take Me Back” is again up tempo hard rock, while ,,Save Me Tonight” is a thoughtful ballad. There is also room for a second ballad entitled ,,That’s When I’ll Stop Loving You”. In the lyric department a bit soppy, but again Laine sings it perfectly. The Defiants are a bunch of seasoned musicians. They clearly know what they are doing and the result is an album with a great sound that yet again takes us back to the eighties and early nineties, when melodic hard rock had its heyday!