Seven The Hardway 2010

"Debut album for the new super-group Seven the Hard Line, starring Tony MacAlpine on guitars, bass and keyboards, Virgil Donati on drums, and singer Mark Boals.

There are only two good things about this album: 1) the odd and exciting guitar riffs of “Solitary Man”, and 2) a bunch of largely unoriginal but fairly effective hard-metal songs embellished by skillful guitar solos: the ballad "Where I'm Going" (aka "Something More" - check the great acoustic guitar solo by MacAlpine towards the end), the heavier "Good and Evil", and, a step below, the opening track “Liar”.

Everything else is bad. In two different ways. Bad as in “All I Had” or “The Wall” – more of the same, dated hard-metal brew, but flatter and duller (“The Wall” is simply terrible: totally uninspired). And bad as in “Guilt”, where the trio tries some sort of nu-metal/hard-rock blend, with dreadful results.

On average, “Seven the Hard Line” is a weak and uneven debut, with a few lights and a lot of shadows. Are the positives enough to recommend the album? Probably not."