THIS WEEK I’M LISTENING TO...TWILIGHT ROAD Trapped (Cherry Red Records)

Twilight Road is a new band which brings together once again Italian guitarist/producer Dario Mollo with Welsh vocalist Carl Sentance, following their collaboration on ‘Rock The Cradle’, the second album released by Crossbones (another of Mollo’s musical vehicles). Both players bring a lot to the table: Mollo has worked with, amongst others, Tony Martin, Glenn Hughes and Don Airey amongst others, while the vastly-underrated Sentance earned his stripes with Persian Risk and has since fronted the likes of Krokus, Nazareth and Don Airey’s touring band. As such, both have a great deal of talent and experience to throw in the mix, and ‘Trapped’ is an excellent traditional metal album which boasts eleven original compositions and one cover. Bizarrely, the title track (and album opener) was picked as the lead single which does the album a bit of a disservice as it’s a perhaps a tad too AOR. Compare that to, say, ‘Empty Mirror’ which keeps its cards close to its chest and then unexpectedly kicks into gear, or ‘Fallen Mafia’ – a song that does indeed make you an offer you can’t refuse – and you get a better picture altogether: and closer 'Behind The Mask' is a rare treat indeed.

‘Dark Lady’ sounds like it shares some DNA with ‘Lazy’, and with its bluesy groove and guitar/Hammond interplay sounds like it could easily be a Deep Purple cover. Meanwhile, it’s swiftly followed by their take on ‘Perfect Strangers’ which is played pretty straight until the instrumentalists take flight and have some fun with the structure before crashing back in for the finale. Add in some blues-sodden kicks in ‘Madonna’, the Rainbow-style opener ‘God Is Red’, some exquisite guitar work from Mollo, superb backing from bassist Andy Senis, drummer Alession Benedetto and a clutch of keyboard players, and you’ve got a quite superb album. Let’s hope there’s more where this came from.

Video clips:
‘Empty Mirror’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKhBDVs_PiY

‘Trapped’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhLw4ojRL3M