HARD are a band hailing from Hungary originally performing hard rock in their native tongue before delivering an album in English entitled “Traveller” which caught the attention of producer Beau Hill who remixed a few tracks, that said the album was rather average melodic hard rock at best.  Now the band are back with a new vocalist, none other than Baltimoore main man Bjorn Lodin for “Time Is Waiting For No One” and his influence is quite easy to hear on the band with this being a considerable step up in quality.  Coming across as a mix of Aerosmith, Whitesnake, AC/DC along with some more modern commercial touches the album is for the most part a very solid cohesive unit of songs.

 Kicking off with a couple of driving tunes in the title track and “Black Clouds” both of which are sure to get dandruff flying from front rows when the band play live.  Musically the band are pretty straightforward, solid and able of delivering hard rock with style, but its Lodin’s vocals and his adventurous play with words that brings a smile to my face particularly on the latter track.  The music is also enhanced with the addition of guest lead guitarist Thomas Larsson (Baltimoore/Glenn Hughes) who’s shows more teeth and guile here than on most other recent works from him. 

“Lonesome Loneliness” is a left field step from the albums traditional opener, with Lodin delivering a Steven Tyler esque rhythmic swank in his vocal delivery.  “Love Goes With Anything” is melodic soft rock which is obviously aimed at radio and likely to find appeal on a wider scale, Lodin voice sounds very soulful here.   “Magical Pretence” is arguably the highlight of the album with its great riff, and superb melody lines from Lodin – particularly the swooping lines of the chorus, not a million miles away from the excellent work on Baltimoore’s “Kaleidoscope” album in truth.  

“Into The Fire” is more swaggering hard rock built for slaying arena’s, musically its AC/DC meets early Whitesnake with Lodin’s vocal being a full blooded delivery of mike swinging, crotch crunching David Coverdale proportions , Larsson gets extended solo time here and its thoroughly rewarding as well.  Whilst there is nothing subtle about the track being home to every hard rock cliché going its tremendously good fun.  “The Pace And The Flow” is the kind of retrospective feel good slowy the likes Aerosmith and Bon Jovi play around with, although the mood is kicked up with a heavier chorus. 

Next up is a cover of the Baltimoore track “My Kind Of Woman” being more stripped down and Lodin staying in lower registers than he did on the 1992 original, to be honest I prefer the original but then maybe your opinion will differ.  “Nona” is back to middle America FM radio goodness which given the complete lack of American blood in the band suggests some American bands looking for songwriters might do well to look over the pond for talent!  The track is a nice blend of acoustic guitar, Hammond B3 and bluesy fills, Lodin again sounds great here.  

“Shine On Me Now” is a track which sits a little uneasily with the rest of the material being that its quite different from the rest of the material on offer with Lodin delivery a very disjointed, yet strangely captivating after a few spins vocals.  Time will tell whether the track will settle in with its surroundings.  “Four Leaf Clover” ends the album on a melancholic feel, telling a story of coming back to a loved one, nice enough and again the mix of cleaner guitars and Hammond is strong and here the production really breathes.

For the most part HARD have delivered a strong album with their new vocalist.  It has to be said the influence of Lodin is quite apparent in pretty much all aspects of the album from the production (being a typically flawless effort by Lodin) whilst the classic nature of the majority of the material is sure to find an easy settling home with most classic/melodic/hard rock fans.  That said a couple of tracks don’t exhume quite the same class as their counterparts (Shine On Me Now, My Kind Of Woman)  but overall “Time Is Waiting For No One” is a strong rock album – great album cover too!