[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hardline2016.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Left to right: Alessandro Del Vecchio, Josh Ramos, Johnny Gioeli, Francesco Jovino and Anna Portalupi]]

Hardline is an American HardRock[=/=]HeavyMetal band, it is the pet project of Johnny Gioeli (of Music/Crush40 and Music/AxelRudiPell fame). Formed in 1991 by Johnny and his brother Joey, it started life as a HairMetal band, and they released their first album, ''Double Eclipse'', in 1992. A fairly standard melodic hair metal piece, ''Double Eclipse'' sported a sound straight out of {{The Eighties}}. The album featured a cover of Danny Spanos' Top 40 hit "Hot Cherie", which became a modest radio hit. Notably, this album features Neal Schon of Music/{{Journey|Band}} on guitars. Due to the rise of {{Grunge}}, the album unfortunately didn't become very successful, and the band went mostly silent for about 10 years.

In September of 2002 the band released their sophomore album, ''II''. This album, featuring a more traditional HeavyMetal sound and an almost completely different lineup, was followed by a live album, ''Live at the Gods Festival 2002''. After this, the band went silent once again. Their next album came in 2009, under the name ''Leaving the End Open''. This album was yet again a fairly radical change from the sound of its preceding album, albeit featuring the same musicians as ''II''. This would have been Hardline's last hurrah, had it not been for one Alessandro Del Vecchio. A fan of the band, he wrote several songs with Johnny's voice in mind and, after recording some demos, sent them to him. Johnny liked the sound of these and immediately got to work writing another album, featuring Del Vecchio on keyboards. This album, ''Danger Zone'', was released in mid-2012.

Johnny announced some time after ''Danger Zone'''s release that Hardline would be more active from then on. True to his word, a new album was released in October 2016--''Human Nature'' sees Hardline dabble in power metal.

Overall, Hardline is a good band that was unfortunate enough to form at a time when their style of music was on the way out, and no one can properly say how far they would have gotten had they released their first album in the 80s.

Compare Music/DangerDanger, another similar band that came in during the tail end of the HairMetal scene and later had a member do music for the ''Franchise/{{Sonic the Hedgehog}}'' series.

'''Current Members''':
* Johnny Gioeli - Vocals
* Josh Ramos - Guitar
* Anna Portalupi - Bass
* Francesco Jovino - Drums
* Alessandro Del Vecchio - Keyboard

'''Discography''':

* 1992 - ''Double Eclipse''
* 2002 - ''II''
* 2009 - ''Leaving The End Open''
* 2012 - ''Danger Zone''
* 2016 - ''Human Nature''
* 2019 - ''Life''
* 2021 - ''Heart, Mind and Soul''

!!Tropes Applying to Hardline and their music
* BadassBoast: All of "Danger Zone".
* TheCameo: [[Music/Crush40 Jun Senoue]] plays the guitar solo in "Before This".
* CoverVersion / CoveredUp: "Hot Cherie" was originally recorded in 1983 by Danny Spanos.
* ClusterFBomb: Not in their songs so much, but Johnny can get quite potty-mouthed in concerts, as proven by the interludes in ''Live at the Gods''.
* GreenAesop: "Where Will We Go From Here", with some [[HumansAreBastards less than optimistic undertones.]]
-->We are alive, [[WarForFunAndProfit no matter what the cost]]
* HairMetal: ''[[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Double Eclipse]]''. Their second and third albums had strains of this, especially in their ballads, but they generally went in a different direction. Their fourth album returns to this, but does it in a more modern style.
* HardRock: Their first album was pretty much standard '80s fare, somewhere between HardRock and HairMetal. Their later albums had more metallic riffs and moved away from this.
* IntercourseWithYou: A lot of songs on their first album had this theme, for example "Hot Cherie" and "Dr. Love". Their later albums had considerably less of this.
* LoveMartyr: Seems to be the subject of "Trapped in Muddy Waters".
-->[[HereWeGoAgain Here we go again]], still got the blues in me
-->You dried me to the bone
-->I got scars on my soul, it reigns in my hands
-->You stole my endless soul
-->I'm still trapped in muddy waters for you
* PowerBallad: There's at least one every album, such as "In the Hands of Time", "Face the Night" and "Human Nature".
* SurprisinglyGentleSong: "This Gift", from ''II'', has lyrics that would feel right at home in a church hymnal.
** "Take You Home", from ''Human Nature''. While lyrically a sad BreakUpSong, it has only Johnny on vocals and Alessandro on piano.
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