MelodicRock.com - Interactive Melodic CD Reviews

Track Listing

· Naughty Dragon (2)
· Dawn
· It's A Lie (3)
· The Meaning Of Evil (1)
· Midnight Hour
· Find The One
· Bulls Eye
· Time
· Our Cross Our Sins

(*) Best Tracks

Buy it if you liked:

Black Sabbath - Headless Cross
Tony Martin - Back Where I Belong
The Cage - The Cage 2

RONDINELLI

Our Cross Our Sins

MTM Music

· Produced By: Bobby Rondinelli
· Running Time: 52.00 · Genre: Hard Rock
· Release Date: October 21 · Released: EU JP
· LabelLink: MTM Music

92%

Rondinelli is a hard rocking quartet featuring the impressive line up of Bobby Rondinelli (drums), Neil Murray (bass), Teddy Rondinelli (guitars) and Tony Martin (vocals).
If you are familiar with these guys and their history with Black Sabbath, it will come as no surprise to hear that this album is a fabulous slice of Sabbath inspired heavy rock.
The guys combined resume takes in bands like Whitesnake, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Gary Moore and Quiet Riot.
Safe to say, if you like any of those bands at their hard hitting best, then there is an excellent chance Rondinelli has something to offer you.
Fans of big hard rock records like the debut Blue Murder album should also investigate. The epic hard rock of a few tracks, mixed with the production and melodic touches in others makes this a solid effort.
Besides the overall heavy rock theme of this album, the most noticeable thing to me was the awesome performance from Bobby Rondinelli. Drum fans of the world need to check this out, as Bobby is all over this record, with both pounding rhythm and cleaver fills.
Fans of Tony Martin, both from his efforts on The Cage and his Sabbath work, will again be impressed by a flawless vocal performance.
The production of Our Cross, Our Sins is top shelf stuff. The drums, vocals, guitar and bass are all equally mixed. A hard task sometimes for records like this, where so much can be going on at any given time.

The Bottom Line

For the most part, it's a mid to uptempo selection of rockers, slowing down on just a couple of occasions, but never wimping out. This is a big rock album through and through!
One small point – next time let's go for more than 9 tracks. Even though the running time is good value, an extra track or two would be great.
Additionally - the album loses impact at low volume - crank it!
Sundries: Awesome artwork and good running time - despite only being 9 tracks. But the running order isn't doing the album any favors. A revised order with Track 4 up front and Track 1 down the line a little would have been better.

Line Up

· Tony Martin: Vocals
· Teddy Rondinelli: Guitar
· Bobby Rondinelli: Drums
· Neil Murray: Bass

Additional Ratings

Songwriting

90%

Attitude

95%

Production

94%

Sundries

85%

26/01/09: Mel - landart52@mac.com
Rating: 0
best band Teddy Rondinelli and Bobby Rondinelli were ever in is TUSK

14/07/03: eddie - edi@zip.com.au
Rating: 95
Tony Martin sings his heart out on this one. Continues were he left of from the SABS. Hard/blues rock heaven. Surprise album of the year. Very good stuff !!!

27/03/03: Freddy De Keyzer - freddydekeyzer@hotmail.com
Rating: 84
Good pure hardrock CD, this one. Highly talented guys too ! It is kind of Rainbow meets Black Sabbath. Only minor point is the production. That could have been more powerfull. But, one of the better CD's of recent times. Go for it !

21/03/03: Laurent - jazzhard@hotmail.com
Rating: 73
I bought this album because of Neil Murray. Neil's been my favourite rock bass player for more than 20 years now and he never disappointed me.
This album is certainly a grower and I'd probably rate it higher in a couple of weeks. However, I am slightly disappointed as I found the songs to lack of variety. The guitar playing is - IMHO - weak and uninspired.
Tony Martin is doing a good job, as usual, but he does not sound as fiery as on Black Sabbath's "Tyr" for instance.
The positive side is that both Murray and Rondinelli are in fine form, proving why they have been on top of their game for so long.
All in all, a good album but not the classic I had hoped.

07/03/03: Lynchomaniac - Lynchomaniac@hotmail.com
Rating: 60
I found this disc disappointing, given the talent and experience I expected a lot more from these guys! Production and guitarsound sounds like it was recorded in a basement in the early 80's (and believe me I love the 80's, but not this "cheap" kind of sound). Having said that I believe that this might was the sound they were looking for, but the album would have improved massively with a better production! Teddy's guitarplaying is another thing that definately could be improved. What happend to the tasty licks you gave us on the Wardance-album Teddy??? It's good to have the mighty Tony Martin back in form though!

22/01/03: Dan MacDonald - dan_mac62@hotmail.com
Rating: 95
I ordered this cd about a month ago, & because of the holidays
etc. never got to give it it's full due.Well I threw it in the other day & man oh man,I can't remember the last time I heard riffs like this,if you're a Tony Martin fan(& I am),& like riffy
guitar this is a must have-it gets better with every play,I have
both Cage discs & they're excellent but this is better.
cheers!

18/01/03: Daniel - seemann39@hotmail.com
Rating: 99
This album really kills! It certainly delivers the goods and should not be missed by anyone who is into good old traditional hard rock or metal.
I got the Japanese version of the album which contains a bonus track titled "Ride On Fire" which is a great bluesy mid tempo rocker.
The opening track on the Japanese version by the way is "The Meaning Of Evil" which is different to the European release.
Well...it is good to know that there are still solid bands out there and not just nu metal crap.

06/12/02: Brian Hilkey - hilks01@hotmail.com
Rating: 99
Best Hard Rock CD I have heard in years...Martins vocals are absoultely flawless, and the track NAUGHTY DRAGON has everything you could ever want in a Song...soaring melodies...crunchy guitars...flawless drumming...Buy It, Crank It...it will not leave your CD player.

14/11/02: Harold - harold@abc.com
Rating: 70
Decent, but forgetable disk. The songs are straight forward & not too exciting. The album sounds like it could have be recorded in 1986 or so. Definitely lacking the vocal & instrumental hooks of the Cage cds.

05/11/02: Dennis - denboa1@aol.com
Rating: 100
This is what rock and roll has been lacking in the recent past. Hard driving, kick butt rock and roll. No frills with tremendous talent. Teddy has always been underrated. This album shows his best. I wish he would have more vocals. Not to take away from Tony but Teddy has rougher voice that can fit into certain songs. This albums rocks from start to end.

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