Kings of Broadway
s/t

Royal Italians take on the moniker of Kings of Broadway, a quintet started by a metal guitarist who had this dream of making classic hardrock. This self titled album is the debut creation of these guys, a ten track album that ends with a cover of One Republic’s hit song Counting Stars. But they are not only counting the stars, they are trying to take the world by storm with their straightforward hard rocking music. And it all starts with the first day in the life of the author of that particular song.

Hardrock! That is how you can describe it, pure and simple hardrock. No strangeties, the songs are straight to the point, catchy and simple. The production is very good and the vocalist has a good hardrock voice with good energy and feeling. But it can hardly be described as original, this album caters to those who like their hardrock as it has always been. And it is not a very varied album, but the album being fairly short with just over 40 minutes playing time offsets that quite successfully.

I think that this is a fairly strong album, a good one with all the ingredients to be liked by the fans of the straightforward hardrock music. It certainly has some really strong hit songs like the second track Berserk and then the ending is very good, especially the great cover track that ends the album. I think it could be seen as a bit of a weakness that the strongest song of your album is one that you haven’t written yourself but they put a pretty personal spin on that song and successfully makes it their own.

In the end though I can’t help but feeling like I am listening to an album I have heard many times before, like I am hearing the same stuff repeated again and again. The genre fans will like it but for us looking more for musical thrills it isn’t that exciting. Not a royal offering or a royal screw-up, just a good solid hardrock album. Easy to take in and easy to like.

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