The classic TNT line-up: Morty Black, Tony Harnell, Ronni Le Tekrø and Diesel Dahl.
TNT are a Norwegian Hard Rock/ Hair Metal band best known for their songs "10,000 Lovers (In One)" and "Intuition".Originally a straight-up metal band. When American vocalist Tony Harnell replaced original vocalist and co-founder Dag Ingebrigtsen, international success was born. Known for their vocal harmonies and fast soloing courtesy of maestro guitarist Ronni Le Tekrø, TNT had eight albums released with Harnell before British vocalist Tony Mills replaced him. Fan Dumb ensued. Then in 2007, The New Territory was released, causing further Broken Base wars to ensue. Tony Mills left TNT in the summer of 2013 and a couple of months later Tony Harnell confirmed that he had rejoined the band. In January 2015 Harnell announced he had left TNT again, however he announced his return to the band in May 2016, only to leave yet again in October 2017. TNT officially revealed their new vocalist, Baol Bardot Bulsara, at Oslo Spektrum in November 2017, when they were the opening act for Scorpions. TNT released their thirteenth studio album, XIII, in June 2018. Harnell rejoined TNT in November 2022.
Not to be confused with the album of the same name, which is by a different band, or with the American cable network TNT or Russian broadcasting network ТНТ.
Current Members:
- Ronni Le Tekrø - guitar, backing vocals (1982–1992, 1996–present)
- Diesel Dahl - drums (1982–1988, 2000–present)
- Tony Harnell - lead vocals (1984–1992, 1996–1997, 1998–2006, 2013–2015, 2016–2017, 2022–present)
- Sid Ringsby - bass, backing vocals (2004–2005, 2013, 2022–present)
Former Members:
- Dag Ingebrigtsen - lead vocals, rhythm guitar (1982–1984)
- Steinar Eikum - bass, backing vocals (1982–1983)
- Morty Black - bass, backing vocals (1983–1992, 1996–2004)
- Kenneth Odiin - drums (1988–1989)
- John Macaluso - drums (1990–1992)
- Victor Borge - bass, backing vocals (2005–2012, 2013–2016)
- Tony Mills - lead vocals (2006–2013; died 2019)
- Ove Husemoen - bass, backing vocals (2016–2022)
- Baol Bardot Bulsara - lead vocals (2017–2022)
Session/Touring Members:
- Dag Stokke - keyboards, backing vocals (1987–1992, 1996–2011; died 2011)
- Frode Lamøy - drums (1996–2000)
- Roger Gilton - keyboards, backing vocals (2011–present)
Studio Discography:
Dag Ingebrigtsen era:- TNT (1982)
- Knights of the New Thunder (1984)
- Tell No Tales (1987)
- Intuition (1989)
- Realized Fantasies (1992)
- Firefly (1997)
- Transistor (1999)
- My Religion (2004)
- All The Way To The Sun (2005)
- The New Territory (2007)
- Atlantis (2008)
- A Farewell To Arms (2010)
- XIII (2018)
TNT are an example of these tropes:
- Album Title Drop: Often used.
- All Drummers Are Animals: Diesel Dahl is a straight example, a Badass Biker who does the trademark drummer face often.
- Audience Participation Song: Their traditional metal album number "Harley-Davidson".
- Award-Bait Song: Too many to freaking list. OK, here are a few: "End of the Line", "Child's Play", "Milestone River"...
- Break-Up Song: "End of the Line", "The Whole You're Inn".
- Careful with That Axe: Almost all of the band's songs, even some of the softer ones, were like this, up until the Tony Mills era, which did it SIGNIFICANTLY less, except for A Farewell to Arms, on which Mills seemed to be returning to his roots as a high pitched metal singer.
- Chronological Album Title: XIII.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Their debut album was a lot more traditional hard rock/heavy metal akin to what Loudness or AC/DC was doing at the time, with Dag Ingebrigtsen even having a voice resembling a young Minoru Niihara, and Ronni's guitar tone being a lot muddier and raw sounding, along with the band's Glam Rock aspects such as Dag taking the nickname D.D Dynamite and the pig mascot they had until Dag left. The weirdness didn't fully go away until 1987's Tell No Tales was released, with Knights of The New Thunder having rather fantasy-based lyrics and the band still dressing in the Glam Rock uniforms they had on the first album.
- Epic Rocking: Desperate Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggggght!
- Fifth Ranger: Keyboardist Dag Stokke, who was never a permanent band member, toured with TNT from 1987 to 2011 and played on every album from Realized Fantasies to A Farewell to Arms, before he died of cancer in 2011.
- Garfunkel: TNT are thought of by its fandumb as being Ronni Le Tekrø on guitars and Tony Harnell on vocals, however bassist Morty Black has taken writing credit for quite a few songs, and Ronni sang lead on "Moonflower".
- Genre Buster: Some of their earlier albums sound rather progressive and theatric in structure, thus it's debated whether albums like Tell No Tales are truly glam metal, and Knights Of The New Thunder bordered on Power Metal at times.
- Grief Song: "Soldier Of The Light", "Ready to Fly", "Song 4 Dianne".
- Heavy Meta: "Deadly Metal".
- Heavy Mithril: "Knights Of The Thunder", "Tor With The Hammer", "Ready To Leave".
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Pretty much the entire band.
- Intercourse with You: Surprisingly few for a band classified as hair metal. But "Take It Like A Man - Woman!" on A Farewell to Arms is quite blatantly one with speed metal-like arrangements.
- International Pop Song English: Tony Mills used this accent when singing for the band.
- Lead Bassist: Morty Black, a type A and D, with his bass playing said by fans to be as essential to the band's early records as Harnell's vocal and Tekro's guitar, with several songs having Black soloing on bass on the first 3 albums with Harnell and Black, as well as playing synthesizer on Intuition and Tell No Tales.
- Lighter and Softer: Intuition from Tell No Tales, All the Way To The Sun from My Religion.
- Lyrical Shoehorn: "Moonflower".
- Metal Scream: Used a lot, especially in the Harnell era. Also used by Tony Mills to an extent.
- Murder Ballad: "Eddie", which has been speculated to be about Iron Maiden's mascot.
- And from A Farewell to Arms, there's "God Natt, Marie", a soothing ballad about a girl who has broken so many hearts she kills herself and ends up a ghost.
- New Sound Album: Firefly (very 1990s Alternative Rock) and The New Territory (an homage to 1970s Glam Rock and Garage Rock). A Farewell To Arms returned to the Traditional Metal sound of the first two albums.
- Nobody Loves the Bassist: Besides Morty Black, most of the band's bassists tend to be forgotten, with Ronni mixing Sid Ringsby's bass playing out of All The Way to The Sun and redubbing in his own basslines. Victor Borge is a nice enough guy and skilled in his own right, but much of the TNT fanbase thinks of Morty as THE TNT bassist still.
- Power Ballad
- Protest Song: "Child's Play" (nuclear weapons), "Purple Mountains Majesty" (government corruption), "Desperate Night" and "Too Late" (war), "Refugee" (oppressive dictatorships).
- Religion Rant Song: "Angels Ride" is arguably a type 2, and "Heaven's Gone" is a type 1.
- Revolving Door Band: Ronni Le Tekrø has been the only consistent member throughout the band's entire run. In total TNT has had four lead vocalists, five bassists, four drummers and two keyboardists.
- Tony Harnell has left the band four times: 1997, 2006, 2015 and 2017.
- Rock Me, Amadeus!: "End of the Line" and "Child's Play" both feature Ronni playing small classical snippets on his guitar.
- Self-Backing Vocalist: Both Tony Harnell and Tony Mills recorded their own backing vocals on their respective TNT albums. Even in concerts, TNT have frequently used backing tapes with their respective backing vocals.
- Self-Titled Album: Probably their least talked-about album.
- Shout-Out: "Take It Like A Man - Woman!" is a huge shout out to one of singer Tony Mills's biggest influences, Judas Priest, in terms of vocals and arrangement.
- Something Blues: "Peter Sellers Blues" from Atlantis.
- Spell My Name With An S: Spell Ronni Le Tekrø's first name with an E and see what reaction you get.
- Step Up to the Microphone: Ronni Le Tekrø sings lead vocals on "Ordinary Lover" and "Moonflower".
