Born in 1984, JOINED FORCES paved the way for all the other original rock acts in Connecticut to follow.
Lifelong friend guitarist Jimi Bell and bassist Mark Franco felt it was time to do their own music. So along with vocalist Marc Diamond and drummer Michael Karpiak, they started to tour local the club circuit

Sometime in band's first year, original drummer Karpiak was replaced by Joey Aparo at which point Joined Forces exploded on to the scene.... they became CT’s "must see band".
In ‘86 the group was featured in the movie 'The Light of Day' starring Michael J Fox and Joan Jett. The band already had a working relationship with Joan having toured with her.

By ‘88 the band had its first break up ... loss of management played a big role in the bands breakup.
Bell went to England, Franco moved to LA and Aparo moved to New York.
Sometime in 1989 Bell and Franco started talking about doing another band. With drummer Joe Aparo back on board they brought vocalist Livio into the mix.
The only thing missing from this great band was once again that illusive record deal. Coming close but never achieving its goal of a major label record deal, the band called it quits again in 1992.

But now, all their unreleased recordings from the '86 / '89 period - some of them produced by Paul Sabu, Jeff Cannata and James Christian (House Of Lords) - are published for the first time.
This is a first class '80s Hair Metal / Classic Hard Rock act, and all the tracks are professionally produced & recorded.
The earlier songs featuring original vocalist Mark Diamond are pure classic hair metal tunes sounding like While Lion or Rough Cutt, while the ones from 2nd era are more classic hard rock with a bluesier edge, remind me Badlands and Whitesnake.
Both singers are more than competent, but the real star of "Joined Forces" is guitar wizard Jimi Bell who has lately recorded with House Of Lords, Rob Rock, Robin Beck to name a few.
His style is hot, melting, on par with the ones like Vitto Bratta (White Lion) or Jake E. Lee.