It is in fact the brainchild of Francesco Cavalieri, the front dwarf of Windrose and his longtime buddy Simone Giusti. On this debut he’s left behind the Mines of Moria for the set of Miami Vice. So no power metal and digging holes but a very catchy form of eighties inspired synthwave. By their own admission they’ve taken inspiration from the likes of Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears and Daft Punk, but what struck me almost immediately is a mix between the retro scifi synth of Priest and AOR pop sensibility of The Night Flight Orchestra, who are both unabashedly incredibly good re-enactment acts for their respective genres by the way.

Regardless what you read into it, it’s undeniably catchy and a whole lot of fun. Just like Windrose actually, the songs are all easy on the ear and very tongue-in-cheek. More so here even I would say. You will be singing along to each and every track, I guarantee you. Even though you might feel guilty straight after and put on some freezing Scandinavian black metal just to compensate. The record starts out quite remarkably with the fully operatic ‘Vesti la Giubba’ as if we’ve landed in Gotham City with crime boss Carmine Falcone and I’m expecting Batman to come crashing through the roof at any moment.

The first proper song ‘Bring on the Fire’ takes you to a shady nightclub, the kind where Sarah Conner would hide from the Terminator with Priest playing on stage. ‘Waiting for the Dawn’ is almost a ballad, cheesy lyrics and all. ‘Lovers on the Run’ is where The Night Flight Orchestra reference came in from me. On ‘Surrendered’ the star-crossed lovers are seeking refuge once more in the nightlife.

‘Fire Fire’ is so infectiously catchy it should be quarantined, and the clip with Franceso and Simone walking around like hip hop celebrities is just too much. ‘Shadows of Your Kiss’ brings in harmonizer effects as if it’s effing Cher on the vocals, and being ‘Monsters’ never sounded like such an enticing prospect as on this song.

In case you still felt the dynamic duo had been too subtle with their inspirations, the album ends with a Duran Duran cover, namely ‘Wild Boys’, which starts out quite true to the original until it goes completely unhinged like Electric Callboy did on ‘Every Time We Touch’.

Finally, it’s not really on the album but it fits in perfectly with their 80s inspired style as well as incidentally, in case you’ve read my Cold Slither review, with one of my other passions besides music. They‘ve been asked to contribute to the 40th anniversary celebration of the original Transformers The Movie animated feature. This sported an incredible soundtrack with some classic gems like Stan Bush’s ‘You got the Touch’. Francesco was asked to add one track to the rerecording of the OST, namely ‘Instruments of Destruction’ which was one of the heavier songs originally. This summer, he also joined in on the live performance of that soundtrack that Hasbro and RPM had organized at San Diego Comic Con alongside another Cold Slither and an actual Jem and the Holograms gig, but don’t get me started on that just yet.

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