TNT (Norwegian band)

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 previous vocalist 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 vocalist Tony 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. TNT are still going strong in Europe and have completed a new album for 2010, with Bård Svensen from Knights of The New Thunder working on backing vocals again.

Not to be confused with the rock song "T.N.T.", which is by a different band.

Below is a summary of each album TNT has produced, with notes here and there on lineup changes and stuff.

 * TNT 1982, the debut album has a much different tone to every other succeeding it. The lyrics were in Norwegian, and singer Dag Ingebrigtsen provided rhythm guitar on a few tracks. Ronni Le Tekrø's tone was much different sounding. After this album, Dag left for personal reasons a few months or so after new bassist Morten Skaget arrived, and the band went through limbo deciding who would sing now.
 * Knights of the New Thunder This album had demos recorded with Dag singing in English.(Keep Circulating the Tapes, but be warned the lyrics and vocals aren't very good.) But Dag left before the final recordings, and New Yorker Tony Harnell arrived on vocals and became The Face of the Band instantly, Morten Skaget changed his name to Morty Black and took on his unique stage personality and smile with the name. Had two hits: "Seven Seas" and "Break The Ice", the former being a power metal song, the latter old fashioned metal.
 * Tell No Tales TNT's biggest hit in the US, this album took a huge turn musically towards hair metal but kept the feel of Knights in a few tracks such as "Desperate Night" and the title track, the former being regarded as one of the best TNT songs ever. But their hits were the highly commercial "10,000 Lovers (In One)" and "Everyone's A Star". Videos for both are still heavily circulated on metal related shows. This was the final album until 2004 to include original drummer Diesel Dahl, who had writing credits on this album.
 * Intuition By far TNT's most commercial album, this album had a straight up AOR feel. With backing vocals by Yngwie Malmsteen vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, drums by Norwegian virtuoso Morten Skogstad, and keyboardist Dag Stokke joining the band, it proved to be an enormous success worldwide.
 * Realized Fantasies A more hard sounding album compared to Intuition, Realized Fantasies featured production by Guns N' Roses producer Ric Wake. Featuring future Rising Force drummer John Macaluso on drums, the album was a success, but was Screwed By The Record Company in the US and never released there. Also featured Joe Lynn Turner on backing vocals. After this album, the band went on hiatus for a while, with Ronni, Morty and Dag forming Vagabond with Stage Dolls drummer Steinar Krokstad and future Rising Force vocalist Jørn Lande.
 * Firefly A more experimental album than anything before it, Firefly was released in 1997 with keyboardist Dag Stokke engineering and mixing the album, and a drum machine being used on the album. It was highly successful in Norway in Japan, with tours for both countries happening with drummer Frode Lamøy from Jack In the Box.
 * Transistor
 * My Religion Returning to a straightforward hard rock style, the band was once more with drummer Diesel Dahl. The album was an enormous success with fans and critics alike. This was the final album with bassist Morty Black, who was replaced with Sid Ringsby in late 2004-2005 before Victor Borge arrived.
 * All The Way To The Sun Taking a Lighter and Softer approach from My Religion, this album was on the poppier side of things and was not nearly as successful as My Religion. This was Tony Harnell's final album with the band.
 * The New Territory A completely different album from anything before it, The New Territory was the first album with singer Tony Mills. Sales of the album were high, but general fan reception was not very pleased. The album had a noticeable 70s feel to it, which was reflected in the mixing as well. The next album would be better received.
 * Atlantis A slightly harder album than Territory, but had a few experiments such as "Tango Girl" and "Peter Sellers Blues". Overall the album was much better received except among the hardcore Harnell fanboys.
 * A Farewell To Arms The newest and so far best recieved of the Tony Mills helmed TNT albums. Returns to the Heavy Metal of the first two albums.

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.
 * Ascended Fanboy: Ex-Drummer Frode Lamøy and current bassist Victor Borge both count.
 * 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"...
 * The Band Minus the Face: Subverted, as TNT are still going on as if nothing changed when Tony Harnell left.
 * Bishonen: The entire band in their early days, particularly Ronni Le Tekrø, up until 2003 when he started getting a bit of facial hair.
 * Break Up Song: "End of the Line".
 * Careful With That Axe: Almost all of the band's songs, even some of the softer ones, are like this, up until the Tony Mills era, which does it SIGNIFICANTLY less, except for the latest album, in which Mills seems to be returning to his roots as a high pitched metal singer.
 * Creator Backlash: Ronni Le Tekrø refuses to play anything from Firefly or Transistor.
 * Epic Rocking: Desperate Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggggght!
 * Filk Song: "Now We're Talkin'", which is The Scrappy among many fans.
 * "Harley Davidson", their only remembered song from their otherwise forgotten first album.
 * Garfunkel: TNT are thought of by it's fandumb as being Ronni Le Tekrø on guitars and Tony Harnell on vocals, however Morty Black on bass 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.
 * Grief Song: "Soldier Of The Light".
 * 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 on the latest album, "Take It Like A Man - Woman", is quite blatantly one with speed metal-like arrangements.
 * International Pop Song English: Tony Mills uses this accent when singing for the band.
 * 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. Still used by Tony Mills to an extent.
 * Murder Ballad: "Eddie", which has been speculated to be about Iron Maiden's mascot.
 * And from the newest album, 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, The New Territory. A Farewell To Arms returns to the Traditional Metal sound of the first two albums.
 * Old Shame: Firefly, although the fans would say otherwise.
 * One of Us: Ronni Le Tekrø is a gamer on the side (who enjoys Halo) but does not like Guitar Hero.
 * The Pete Best: Original vocalist/rhythm guitarist Dag Ingebrigtsen.
 * Power Ballad
 * Protest Song: "Child's Play" (nuclear weapons.)
 * 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.
 * Sixth 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.
 * Something Blues: "Peter Sellers Blues" from Atlantis.
 * Spell My Name With an "S": Spell Ronni Le Tekrø with an E and watch what reaction you get.
 * The Jimmy Hart Version / To the Tune Of: "Black Butterfly" is pretty much "Immigrant Song" in terms of song structure.