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Super group Black Swan return with another set of heavy rockers and bluesy ballads on their third album Paralyzed.

Comprised of vocalist Robin McAuley (MSG), guitarist Reb Beach (Winger/Whitesnake), bassist Jeff Pilson (Foreigner/ex-Dokken) and drummer Matt Starr (Mr Big), with two albums behind them it’s obvious that this high profile foursome consider Black Swan more than just another project.

They are fully realised, fully functioning band, all the songs written by McAuley, Pilson, and Beach, with Pilson working his magic behind the desk, Paralyzed, like it’s predecessors, is a combination of 80’s heavy rock leaning on melodic heavy riffs and those brilliant vocals.

It’s a record they have been building to with their last two release, a combination of styles and sounds from the 80’s draped in modern trappings, with the guitar driven The Fire And The Flame and ballad I’m Ready letting Beach show off his chops while Pilson and Starr drive faster moments such as the title track and the grooving Battered And Bruised.

From the traditional metal sound of anthemic opener When The Cold Wind Blows, gets the Priest chug going, while Different Kind Of Woman is a sleazy strutting rocker, as AOR creeps in on Shakedown, every song delivered with those powerhouse vocals of McAuley be it the Van Hagar-like What The Future Holds, and there’s moments of Scorpions on Carry On.

So Black Swan continues to bring classic heavy rocking from a bygone era right up to date with a quartet of veteran musicians at the top of their game, grab an air guitar you’ll be singing into the mirror in no time. 8/10

Joel Hoekstra’s 13 – From The Fade (Frontiers Music Srl)

If for some reason you stumbled upon You Can Give, the opener of this record and you thought it was a new one from Avenged Sevenfold, you could be forgiven for doing so, as it sounds really like an AX7 song, it’s the vocals from Girish Pradhan, I think but thankfully we’re back on solid ground of classic hard rock with The Fall.

This is where guitarist Joel Hoekstra is most comfortable as a writer, with time spent in Whitesnake and Revolution Saints, though his time in Trans Siberian Orchestra (via The Beatles on Will You Remember) means that From The Fade can get a bit more musically expressive.

He’s yet again assembled an A-Team of musicians with his fourth record under the 13 name, Pradhan flexes those vocal chords with Jeff Scott Soto providing backing. The engine room is Vinne Appice behind the kit drums and “The Fretless Monster” Tony Franklin on bass while Derek Sherinian adds keys/organs but these songs are about the riff.

Heavier riffs than on earlier outings due to Hoekstra doing some live filling in for Accept at the time of writing and you can hear that influence on Free To Be alongside Misunderstood, where everyone gets a solo, Mr Big style.

The Fade though is a hard rock record and while the guitars are a little harsher the choruses are big and the riffs will get your head nodding in the hard rock style Hoekstra is known for. 7/10

ITsALIE – Wild Games (Frontiers Music Srl)

The one thing you can say about Frontiers is that the label does a lot for the Italian rock scene, ITsALIE being the latest Italian rock band to get a record release through the label. Now being a band managed by Mat Sinner (Primal Fear/Sinner) who also produces the music on this third album and also now plays bass with the band.

Having Sinner aboard has brought them a bit more recognition from a wider audience and I’d assume Frontiers too as along with him twiddling the knobs, Magnus Karlsson handles the mix and master so ITsALIE have been attracting some very famous eyes and ears. As I said they released two albums before this on Rock Of Angels Records, much of the praise for the band placed upon the vocals of Giorgia Colleluori but Wild Games is their chance to show off to a new audience.

With tracks such as Waiting For The Rain, History Remains and Believers Of Leaders, you can hear why her gritty hard rock vocal has been praised, it’s got power and soul to it with a gnarly low end for the heavy grooves of Rebels. Giorgia is a member of Sinner as well as Rock Meets Classic, while her and drummer Camillo Colleluori are both former members of symphonic power metal act Eternal Idol, but they seem more at home in their current melodic rock guise.

Since the last album hotshot six stringer Leonardo Duranti has joined the band and he clearly relishes playing alongside Sinner and collaborating with Karlsson as his guitar playing just fits so well, full of the technical brilliance of EVH on the excellent Wake Up Call, and on Sammy Hagar cover One Way To Rock, as that heavy rock experience of Sinner combines with drummer Camillo on the Zep-like closer Spirits.