Tunnel

Tunnel

Dave Henzerling’s new project Tunnel has a new CD out on Driver Wild music and it pretty much rocks.

Ever since I heard Big Cock (the thinking man’s Hard Rock Steel Panther) I’ve been a fan of Dave’s music; but with Robert Mason (Big Cock’s singer) stepping out with Warrant at the moment, Dave has put a hold on Big Cock for the time being. Always a busy man – he played with both Big Cock and Icon at Rocklahoma last year and stood in on bass for Bang Tango in Phoenix when I saw them in July, he also recently teamed up with Carmine Appice at a Sin City Sinners show in Vegas to help resurrect another of his previous bands King Kobra!

Tunnel may well be a self produced side project but there’s a lot to like. The arty cover sees Dave's guitar disappearing into the 'Tunnel House' an installation by Dan Havel and Dean Ruck local artists in Houston Texas and was put togather by Big Cock's tub-thumper John Covington. If you check out the Tunnel site you get to hear the song ‘Blood on the Highway’ and if you like that you will like this album.

It’s timeless hard rock with a definite eighties flavour; and whilst Dave has largely put aside the innuendo of Big Cock (though he can’t help himself on ‘In Your Groove’) he’s upped the cliché count; but it’s all fun, and while songs like ‘American Metal’ may sound like you’ve heard them before that to a certain extent is the point. There’s nothing ground-breaking or vaguely modern about the sound here and thank God for that! This is good solid hard rock that’s fun and that’s the way we like it.

Opener ‘Sound of Thunder’ and ‘Blood on the Highway’ that follows add the rock to the equation. ‘Open Up For Me’ is perhaps closest to the Big Cock sound with a pinch of early Stone Temple Pilots.

It is an album of various shades though. ‘Into the Sun’ is a beautiful song that I found myself coming back to. It’s pretty much my favourite track, an acoustic landscape, flavoured with a pinch of blues and very easy on the ear.

Singer Scott Hammons has a fine soulful voice that suits the songs beautifully and it’s a great showcase for his talents whether on the laid back ‘The Balcony’; the Groove of ‘Garden of Your Earthly Delights’ or the rockier tracks like ‘Blood on the Highway’.

It's definitely a grower and at only eight tracks I found myself wanting more.

This is a very solid release, mellower than Big Cock and not quite as full of hooks, but it casts the net a little wider stylistically. If you like your hard rock without additives and packed with vitamins this is one for you.

My wife thinks this is the best thing she's heard in a long time.

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