''II'' is the second album by American

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band,

Hardline In politics, hardline (or hard-line) is an adjective describing a stance on an issue that is inflexible and not subject to compromise. A hardliner is a person holding such views. The stance is usually far from the centrist view. People, policies, ...

. It was released in 2002, ten years after the band's debut album ''Double Eclipse.'' It is also the last album to feature Joey Gioeli. The album was originally going to be named ''Hyperspace'', but vocalist

Johnny Gioeli Johnny Gioeli ( ; born October 5, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter and composer, known as the vocalist of the hard rock band Crush 40. He is also the original lead singer of the band Hardline and a member of German guitarist Axel Rudi Pe ...

decided to change the name simply to ''II'' because "it's a natural prosecution of what we started with our debut album ''

Double Eclipse ''Double Eclipse'' is the debut studio album released by the American hard rock band Hardline (band), Hardline in 1992. The first single released from the album was "Takin' Me Down", written by Johnny and Joey Gioeli with Neal Schon. "Takin' Me ...

''." The tracks "Face the Night," "Do or Die," "Your Eyes," and "This Gift" were originally recorded for Double Eclipse, as Johnny Gioeli revealed in a 2002 interview, "So people are getting a real Hardline record." It features former The Storm guitarist Josh Ramos. In a 2002 interview with Andy Read, Johnny Gioeli revealed four songs that were to be included on ''II'': "Plastic Jesus," "Sweet Surrender," "Why Me," which may have been an early demo of "Y," and "Only a Night," the only track among the four confirmed to have appeared on the final product. Gioeli also revealed that he had written two full-length albums, one of which was unused and replaced with what became ''II''. "We actually started writing an album that would've truly been a follow-up to the first Hardline record," Gioeli explained, "It would have been a bit shocking because it was a little outside the box. People don't know that because the second album never came out. Anyway, people at Frontiers heard it and got a little bit nervous and said, 'Keep it like the first record.'" In an interview with members of

Jun Senoue is a Japanese composer and guitarist who works for Sega, known for his various contributions in the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' video game series. He is also the songwriter for the band Crush 40, which has also contributed to many ''Sonic'' games. B ...

's official fansite at

Summer of Sonic is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformers mo ...

2012, Gioeli elaborated on the differences between ''Double Eclipse'' and what would have been an immediate follow up: "So the question is, how different was it going to be? Well, what happened was, we had a meeting with the record company (

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...

) when we were preparing for that, and then, you know the whole Pearl Jam alternative shit was happening, and the record company said 'Hey look, we know that you guys are talented enough that you can fit in this space as well. So we want to have a bit of an alternative flare.' So, was it completely different? No, but it definitely had a little alternative feel to it. Yeah, it definitely did. I’m trying to recall... basically the difference was, what was happening is a lot of the singers were not using much vibrato." He then demonstrated the difference. "So what we were doing was..." He proceeded to sing part of “I Will Survive” (unreleased) without vibrato. "There it is, that was one of the songs."

Track listing

Personnel

Band members

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

, executive producer *Josh Ramos – lead & rhythm guitar *Joey Gioeli – rhythm guitar *

Bobby Rock Nitro was an American heavy metal band from Hollywood, California. Formed in 1988, the group originally featured vocalist Jim Gillette, guitarist Michael Angelo Batio, bassist T. J. Racer and drummer Bobby Rock. Nitro released its debut album ' ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Christopher Maloney Christopher Patrick Maloney is an American singer-songwriter, bass guitarist and music educator. He is widely known for his work with instrumental hard rock band Cosmosquad, his stints in Hardline and with Dweezil Zappa, as an independent solo ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

*Michael T. Ross –

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Additional musicians

Neal Schon Neal (Neil) is a given masculine name and surname of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an Anglicisation of the Irish Niall which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "hono ...

- guitar (track 11)

Production

*Bob Burch - producer, recording, engineering, mixing, arrangement *Andy Haller - recording, engineer, mixing *

Gary Hoey Gary Hoey (born August 23, 1960) is an American hard rock and latterly blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has recorded over 20 albums and had five Top 20 ''Billboard'' hits. Early life and early career Hoey was born in Lowell, Ma ...

- mixing *Mike S. Robinson - executive producer *Evren Göknar - mastering

External links

Heavy Harmonies page
{{Authority control Hardline (band) albums 2002 albums Frontiers Records albums