SAINTS TRADE project was born in Bologna in 2009 with a great will to play music and a sheer passion for glorious Hard Rock bands. Soon, the band started composing its own material and performing live around Italy. The enthusiastic response of the audience to the songs gave them an encouragement to enter the studio in April 2012 and record "A Matter of Dreams", their first mini-album produced by Roberto Priori at his PriStudio. In early 2013, SAINTS TRADE presented the official video for the song "Face in The Mirror" and opened for British rockers Jettblack in Bologna. Once again, the positive audience response gave the guys a good reason to re-enter the studio. Saints Trade and Roberto Priori got to team up in June 2014, giving birth to Saints Trade's first full-length album called "Robbed in Paradise". In November, the signing for the Italian label Logic Il Logic Records set forth a new chapter in their career. "Time to be Heroes" contains eleven tracks.

"Livin' to Rock" leads off the album, with a menacing riff and some noticeable keys. The vocals are really strong but some of the lyrics are a bit cliche...but this could be from the fact that English is not their native language. "Destiny" opens with some heavier accents and has a gainful energy that is infectious. Some of the chord progressions are a little unexpected and some of the riffing is a bit simple, but it sounds nice. "Higher" is a mid-tempo number with a bit of swing in its groove. Female vocals some in support and man does she have some pipes. "Queen of Love" is a faster moving song where they lay on that low E string quite a bit. The harmonies are nicely done in the chorus, but the verses could use some thickening up a bit. "Born Hunter" opens with some big drum thuds and as easy listening guitar riff. The main problem is, it's not a riff that you haven't heard before. They need to work a little on separating themselves apart from other similar bands. "Twists in the Tail" is another example of this problem. It's stuck in a mid-tempo groove and overly relies on the vocal strength of Santi Libra. "The Rose" has a little more get-up-and-go, where I can feel the band's emotional peaks. But again, done with some cliché lyrics. "Middle of Nowhere" closes the album, with some soft and charming notes in the opening, leading to a longing sound that gets just a bit repetitive after a while.

Overall, this was a good album that could have been better, with some more imaginative riffs and perhaps some more keys. As I mentioned, it relies too much on the vocal strength of Santi Libra, but the backing instruments need to be stronger. If they can thicken things up a bit they would really be onto something.