RONNIE ROMERO – Backbone

RELEASE YEAR: 2025
BAND URL: https://www.facebook.com/ronnieromeroofficial/

The immensely talented vocalist Ronnie Romero has become a household name in hard rock and heavy metal circles, which is hardly surprising given that he has lent his incredible voice to recordings by Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, Michael Schenker, Vandenberg, Sunstorm, and Lords of Black just to list a few examples. His solo offering containing all-original material titled Too Many Lies, Too Many Masters (2023) was a prime slice of epic metal that harkened back to the glory days of DIO as well as Black Sabbath’s The Eternal Idol without sounding old hat, which made this scribe very curious as to how a follow-up LP would turn out, and it turns out that this upcoming effort of his is ripping as well.

In truth, the aforementioned album from two years ago benefited greatly from an abundance of passion and enthusiasm on all parties involved in its creation, and the melodies were stunning while the riffs were big, fat, and juicy. Backbone comes across as the natural successor only that it lacks the immediacy and energy of what came before, and the compositions are generally slightly less memorable and infectious than the material that constituted Too Many Lies, Too Many Masters. However, the 2025 opus is neither half-assed nor does it lack the power to transport the listener elsewhere and the ability to generate a sense of excitement on many occasions. The infectiously powerful “Lonely World,” the majestic Sabbath-esque “Keep on Falling,” the melancholic “Running Over,” and the melodically gorgeous album closer “Black Dog” are stirring, well-written tunes delivering plenty of heavy metal pomp and which will undoubtedly sound eminent in a live setting. There is no lack of crunch to the production either.

Backbone is a fine addition to the superb singer’s discography without necessarily being outright phenomenal, and the whole affair packs a serious punch.