The Band: Pete Pandolfo – Drums Jay Fischer - Lead Vocals Vinny Tabone jr - Bass / Vocals / Acoustic Guitar Ronnie Wilde – Guitars Plus: Darcy Deutsch (Prism / Pokerface) - Lead Vocals on “Allied Forces” Danny Vaughn (Tyketto) - Lead Vocals on “Medicine Man”, “Thunder Nation” and “Eyes of Wonder” Mike Behm (Solo artist/Vancouver/Frenzy)- Backing vocals on “Allied Forces” Bill Bressler & Jim Wilson – Keyboards It’s time for a bit of eighties hard rock, big hair and all! Allied Forces were formed in 1983, it was a coming together from some of New York’s top club bands. Ronnie Wilde was the founder member of the group, his previous band was Legend, an outfit that also included Ted Poley (Prophet, Bone Machine). Ronnie has also played with Ray Gillen (Badlands, Black Sabbath, Phenomena). At one point Danny Vaughn was the full-time lead singer of the band, but moved on to Waysted and, eventually, Tyketto. He actually takes the lead on three tracks of this very CD. After a few more shuffles the above line-up went on to be one of New York’s most popular commercial rock bands... Well, there is just about every band you could ever think of rolled up into this album. The opening track, “Allied Forces”, is one of those sing-along anthems that will have you swaying your arms to it’s acoustic vibes. This is a great intro song, but not typical of the band as you will find out, playing each track in turn. Vaughn breaks in for the songs “Medicine Man” and “Thunder Nation” which sound like Triumph and Kansas respectively. Jay Fischer, the band’s resident vocalist, finally gets a look in on track four “Picking up the pieces”, which makes the band sound a whole lot like Seattle’s Rail, another highly thought of band who released three albums in the eighties. Then a change in sound again with the song “All out of love”, a very distinctly Boston flavoured song. This puts the band firmly in the “old school of thought” category, great traditional American hard rock. “On the Run” carries the flag ahead in true melodic fashion, and “Eyes of Wonder” is a memorable epic with Danny back at the mike stand. Kansas, Journey and Triumph fans will love this. However, Boston fans will lap up the song “Party”, but there is something for everyone on this album. With mixing from Delwyn Brooks (Sound Engineer to Bruce Fairbairn) and Production from Allied Forces with Bruce Robbins (Rainbow, Deep Purple) this is a true eighties album that will be well placed with all rock fans.