Review Text
Three CD set. One band that certainly deserved the epithet of "supergroup" was Blackthorne. Originally forming in 1991 when former Rainbow, MSG and Alcatrazz singer Graham Bonnet joined forces with former Meat Loaf, Balance and KISS collaborator Bob Kulick, in a line-up featuring ex-Impellitteri, Alice Cooper and Giuffria bassist Chuck Wright, Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali and New England and Alcatrazz keyboard player Jimmy Waldo. Blackthorne released their sole studio album Afterlife in 1993. Although well received by the press, Blackthorne never really fulfilled their true potential before the band members went their separate ways after that one album. Perhaps their brand of classic heavy rock was going against the tide of grunge, then the prevailing flavor of the early 1990s. HNE released the shelved second Blackthorne album, Don't Kill The Thrill in 2016, but now present We Won't Be Forgotten: The Blackthorne Anthology. This set comprises of 44 tracks, 30 of which are newly unearthed, unreleased recordings. Afterlife had featured the band's cover of Rainbow's classic 'All Night Long', and one particular treat presented here is an unreleased recording of the Russ Ballard penned, Rainbow fave 'Since You Been Gone', the 1992 instrumental backing track which Graham Bonnet recently added vocals. Also featured are 4-track demos, 8-track demos, 16-track demos and even 24-track demos, the earliest of which date from 1992 when the band's rhythm section featured White Lion's James Lomenzo and Greg D'Angelo. Also featured is a 1993 rehearsal from Mates studio in Los Angeles, giving a unique insight into how this band worked off-stage. 'Skeletons In The Closet' and 'Man In The Black Hat' would later appear on the sole self-titled 1996 album by Murderer's Row, the band that Waldo and Kulick would form with singer David Glen Eisley following Blackthorne's dissolution in 1994, and the previously unheard 'Angel Of Pleasure' which would be re-written as 'Dreaming In The Hideaway'.
