“Back to My Future” is the hard and heavy debut from Italian hard rockers
HUNGRY DAZE, named after the
DEEP PURPLE song off their controversial 1984 record,
“Perfect Strangers”. The first lineup consisted of
Claudio Rostagno on drums,
Luca Bernazzi on bass and
Roby Bruccoleri as vocalist. Soon after,
Francesco ‘Yackson’ Russo joined the band as guitarist, leaving his previous band
SHADOWS OF STEEL only recently. Due to personal reasons,
Rostagno and
Bernazzi left the group leaving
Russo and
Bruccoleri to begin writing material that would eventual become their debut album. The band would find studio compatriots in
Marco Biggi on drums and
Roberto Tiranti (
LABYRINTH and
WONDERLAND) lending both bass and backing vocals on the tracks. By autumn of 2018, they would finally complete an official lineup with
Maurizo De Palo on drums (
WOUNDED KNEE, TRIBAR, and
COMBRICCOLA) and
Fabio Zunino on bass – previously playing alongside
Bruccoleri in
PROJECTO who were a power metal band that released a pair of decent albums at the end of the 90s. The band soon started playing their new tracks, opening for various bands and still hungry, writing more new material.
After the first two songs -
“The Right Way” and
“Kiss of Life” – I was ready to write these guys off as a bland melodic AOR group with repetitive, uninteresting riffs, yet possessing a raw talent in
Francesco “Yackson” Russo – his solos were very tasty. Even
“Rock Paradise” failed to impress, sounding like a mix of a very apparent nod to
DAVID LEE ROTH’s “Just Like Paradise mixed with
OZZY OSBOURNE’s “Suicide Solution”. Russo owes a lot of his style to
Steve Vai and the late
Randy Rhoads. It was enough to keep me going and listen to more despite my trepidation. But then the title track came on and I was treated to a distorted, yet elegant arpeggiated intro I struggled to find a similarity to. I honestly was sure I had heard something like it before but could not rack my brain hard enough to remember and that put me in my place, I was captivated. Their title track should have been the opener, it is melodically and thematically interesting bordering on the progressive.
“Life on Two Wheels” was similarly attractive, starting out with lounge lizard, bouncy, jazzy 7
th chords – very swing heavy – that slowly builds into this amazing power ballad and featuring and absolutely mind-blowingly quick solo.
“Tonight Is The Night” is an amazing banger of late 80s melodic rock greatness and closer
“Wolf’s Den” is a nice slow burner that amazingly made me long for more.
Unfortunately, the production is not great. Why is there an insistence on continuing the washed out non-clarity mixing that was prevalent in the late 80s and early 90s in heavy metal? It takes away a lot of the greatness of what could be a pretty great record.
Roby Bruccoleri gives a great if not particularly unique vocal performance. It’s clear he is a seasoned pro. If I haven’t praised him enough
Russo’s intro to their cover of
SAXON’s “Mororcycle Man” – in which he simulates the sound of a motorcycle engine with supersonic lead runs up and down his guitar neck – is just one big example of why this is a guitarist that should get more attention. If he made a solo record I would buy it in a second. My advice, skip the first two tracks and enjoy all the ingenuity and genius crafting this band has to offer.
Songwriting: 9
Musicianship: 10
Memorability: 8
Production: 5