Zero Nine is a Finnish heavy metal/hard rock band that’s located in the small city of Kuusamo. Their sound initially flirted with the Scandinavian Metal aesthetics and especially with the First Wave of Swedish Heavy Metal, while later on, they started sounding a bit too rock-y for the average metal audience due to the fact that they chose to follow more commercial paths, however the exceptional essence of melody and the very good guitar work remained as their special feature (closer to poser than metal). They began in 1978 and came out of obscurity when their first single, “Down the Line”, won a prize in a TV show of their own country (Town Hall). Soon enough, Ian Gillan’s curiosity made him work with Zero Nine, serving as a producer for their second album, “Blank Verse,” in January 1982. The album was recorded in England and partly justified the great expectations that were born because of Ian Gillan’s participation. However, they became essentially known to the metal audience in 1984 with the participation of 2 songs (the hymn ‘Walk Away’ plus ‘Under The Sun’) in the legendary compilation ‘Scandinavian Metal Attack’ released via RCA Records along with Oz, Trash, Spitfire and Bathory. Almost just before the participation on the compilation Zero Nine had released the single ‘Walk Away’ for the song that outstand from ‘Headline’. The compositions have the perfect length, not tiring the listener. The melodic parts are dominant, and the sound is not necessarily extremely metallic, certainly it is satisfactorily hard for the average fan of Heavy Metal.Same with 1985, when they signed with Virgin Records for their next album, “White Lines”, which was released in England by the legendary N.W.O.B.H.M. label Heavy Metal records. ‘Headline’ has been forgotten by even the most fanatical of the genre with all this typhoon of re-releases and that risen-from-the-dead trend, bringing back to life even the most unlikely bands and albums, but this one is objectively worth listening to by all Melodic Rock and Scandinavian rock lovers. A definitely very good record with plenty of metallic elements, nice guitars, and catchy choruses. Magic Dream, Queen Of The Ocean Drive, Walk Away, Run To The Lights and Hit The Headline stand out. The band released up to 2009 nine studio albums in total, the latter being released under the title ‘XI’ on 09.09.09 …