Another Open Road – Another Open Road (2014)

ANOTHER OPEN ROAD is mostly a solo work of multi-talented musician Antonio Guerrieri, singing and playing most of the instruments on the album, and his brother Pierluigi Guerrieri playing lead guitars and backing vocals. They produced together an unlikely family duo-band album. If you didn’t pick it up by their names, they’re Italian. Italy is actually a hidden haven of great Rock and Prog groups though most people don’t know about it (and that should change!).

ANOTHER OPEN ROAD were working on their debut album since 2011 and ended up with their short (just a bit over half an hour) self-titled debut album ”Another Open Road”.

For a debut album, they did a great job. They managed to incorporate familiar sounds of great 80’s Hard Rock bands and glam singing style like: WHITESNAKE, DEF LEPPARD and BON JOVI and on the more Prog end RUSH and SUPERTRAMP but also at times sounding even like 80’s Pop such as DIRE STRAITS or even TOTO, all these influences, and a hint of modern Hard Rock sound as well makes a fine new blend that makes ANOTHER OPEN ROAD what it is. Great guitar solos are a main theme on this album, but what really gives it that 80’s flair, is the extensive use of keyboards with distinct 80’s sounds that really throw you back to that decade.

The 2 last tracks of ”Another Open Road” featured two guest singers: Alex Panza from WALPURGIS NIGHT / ENDOVEIN on track 6, “Cry forever”, and Federico Mazza from ASGARD on the final track  “Playing With Fire”. These 2 tracks really boost the album’s level to ‘over 9000’ and make it worth the wait.

On my first listen, I didn’t read anything about the album nor the band. I always do that, I like getting a clean slate first impression, and I noticed that the last two tracks sounded like the singer gave a lot more power and passion to his singing, and I couldn’t help but wonder – why didn’t the rest of the album sound like this? Antonio Guerrieri could get kudos for being good enough for me to think that it was still the same lead singer, so he is definitely not a bad singer per se, but I still think that high-quality-powerful lead singing is exactly what the first 4 tracks of the album could have needed to sound even better than they already do (the first track is a short instrumental introduction). So maybe they should consider getting either Alex Panza or Federico Mazza as steady lead singers in the band? It’s important to not underestimate the importance of a good lead singer.

Wrapping it up: If you like 80’s Hard Rock you will like this album, if you like the modern sound of hard melodic Rock, you might not.

1. Riding to…
2. Another Open Road
3. Burning Desires
4. Touch The Heaven
5. What We Dream
6. Cry Forever
7. Playing With Fire

Antonio Guerrieri – Guitars / Bass / Drums / Lead & Backing Vocals / Keyboards
Pierluigi Guerrieri – Guitars / Backing Vocals

Guests:
Andrea Tognetti – Bass in “Playing With Fire”
Federico Mazza – Lead Vocals in “Playing With Fire”
Gabriele Lazzerini – Guitar Solo in “Playing With Fire”
Alex Panza – Lead Vocals in “Cry Forever”