Band:	Resurrection Kings
Album:	Resurrection Kings
Style:	Hard rock
Release date:	January 2016

01. Distant Prayer
02. Livin' Out Loud
03. Wash Away
04. Who Did You Run To
05. Fallin' For You
06. Never Say Goodbye
07. Path Of Love
08. Had Enough
09. Don't Have To Fight No More
10. Silent Wonder
11. What You Take

Are you up for a mind trick? Imagine 1987. Ok, are you there? Good. Well, that's it. Here is a new super group project called Resurrection Kings, which are essentially former Dio members Craig Goldy [guitars] and Vinny Appice [drums] joining forces with Sean McNabb [bass, Quiet Riot / Dokken]. To complete the lineup, we have a talented rock vocalist in Chas West (ex-Bonham, Foreigner). This whole thing is being brought to you by courtesy of Frontiers Records, by way of producer Alessandro Del Vecchio.

By now you have surely figured out that this is a straightforward hard rock / melodic rock album. The kind of music that lets the real rock instruments do all the talking. Who needs a keyboard player anyway? Only good at noisemaking when a good silence creates a heavy beat, am I right? Seriously, there are some keyboards on this album but they do take the backseat.

In many aspects, the songs are a tribute to hard rock history. The production is very clean, but everything else is retro sounding. Nevertheless the concept is working well, especially with a quality singer such as Chas West, whose voice has the right balance between smokiness a la David Coverdale and rocking a la Robert Plant. Craig Goldy's guitar work is top-notch; and everybody is contributing his part to the whole ensemble. The songs that showcase the more melodic side of their rock sound are rather formulaic but so well put together it is hard to fault them. Yet I can't help but thinking some of these tracks would have benefited from a little variety. The ones that do feature more adventurous elements, such as "Distant Prayer" and "What You Take", seem to underline the feeling that the album could have been enhanced by investing a little more effort on a few key songs.

If you like the occasional throwback and straightforward hard rock album, this is definitely for you. If you still listen regularly to Foreigner, Whitesnake or Dokken this will make your day. If you enjoy the heavy silence in between beats, if Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath are your go-to bands for rocking the night out, Resurrection Kings should make it onto your playlist.