Shining Line - Shining Line
Shining Line is an all star Melodic Rock/AOR project under the leadership of Italians Pierpaolo "Zorro11" Monti (songwriter & drummer) and Amos Monti (bassist). The guest vocalist list is huge. Alessandro Del Vecchio handles production and Michael Voss mixing and mastering. Completing the package on the musical side, we have Alessandro Del Vecchio on keyboards, Marco "Dandy" D’Andrea (Planethard) and Mario Percudani (Hungryheart) on guitars, plus of course Piepaolo and Amos.
‘Highway Of Love’ starts off the show in good style with a good uptempo AOR track featuring Erik Martensson (Ecliplse) on vocals and it is clear that the album offers plenty of promise. This is followed up by some first Harem Scarem album style AOR with none other than Harry Hess on vocals. When third track, ‘Strong Enough’, starts and you are presented with another great track featuring Robbie LeBlanc, it should be clear that this is album with the potential to be really good.
And it doesn’t disappoint. Robin Beck gives a sterling performance on "Heat Of The Light", Mikael Erlandsson (Last Autumn’s Dream) follows on nicely on "Can’t Stop The Rock" and Sue Willets & Bob Rock work well together on "Still In Your Heart". And so it goes on, with only occasional tracks such as "The Meaning Of My Lonely Words" and "Homeless Lullaby" being a bit below the high standard but still perfectly listenable. Three part track "Under Silent Walls" with lead vocals by Michael Voss sits well at the start of the second half adding a feeling of depth to the album.
My review period for this album has been extended as I devoted some time to revamping the site and my enthusiasm for this album hasn’t faded. Albums that find favour during a shorter review period can sometimes fade into the background and not be that frequent listens. However, that hasn’t been the case with this album and it has stood the test of time!