Izvajalec: Vengeance
Založba: MTM Records
Izid: 2006
Ocena: 3.5/5
Vengeance, the band founded in 1983 by guitarist Arjen Anthony Lucassen (today the mastermind of the progressive rock outfit Ayreon), are back with their “heavy rock ‘n’ roll” record, the real old-school traditional stuff from the eighties. The band serves up 11 tracks that barely stray an inch to the left or right of the basic mold: hit straight on the nose, no compromises. Running along the rails of classic Krokus, with a cheeky, untamed whiff of AC/DC wildness and the “heavy metal” fury and explosiveness of Accept (the track Mind Over Matter). One of the main culprits for this result, besides Vengeance’s trademark guitar “riffing”, is once again the raw, raspy, wildly unbridled vocal of Leon Goewie, steered down the tracks of the good old late Bon Scott (ex-AC/DC).
Production duties went to Michael Voss, guitarist of Mad Max, Casanova and Silver, who also contributed some of the material, the keyboards, which are sprinkled through the record as a sample, and the guitars! The production is fat and voluminous as hell! It’s raw, German-style. The hairs on your neck stand up while you listen, no joke. The guitar “riffs” are pushed out front with real conviction, and you literally can’t stand still once you hit “play”. Anthemic choruses, simple arrangements, but these are songs that grab you hungrily by the throat and slam you right between the eyes. Bomb after bomb. In short, Vengeance remain a noble Dutch fist of dynamite, and the cover art couldn’t fit the music they play any better! The guys pack the lyrics with plenty of great humor that suits this kind of music perfectly, and the tracks Back In The Ring, Holy Water, Bad Attitude and Cowboy Style are especially wicked!
An all-star crew has been assembled on this album. It proves that Vengeance are perfectionists, despite the simply filed-down eleven smashers on this record, which roll out one after another in a totally predictable fashion. Paul Sabu co-wrote the track Captain Midnight, which shows in the slightly AOR-flavored melody Sabu is to blame for, while Arjen Lucassen is the ultimate sinner behind the computer sample woven into the basic framework of the song itself. We run into a similar AOR syndrome in the track Now And Then, where typical “eighties” keyboards come as a surprise, sneaking into the sound of the song, along with a deliberately added drum flourish at the transitions that sounds intentionally “glammy”.
With this kind of music you really don’t need a doctorate. It’s pure “sawing wood” and relentless biting through the album’s entire running time, which will satisfy every fan of the simple elements of rock n’ roll raising hell, and of course all of you who are impatiently waiting for the new AC/DC album these days and can make the wait a lot easier with the roar of the new Vengeance album. Vengeance have once again found themselves perfectly at home in the ring! They hand out beatings, smash everything to bits and box by the true, noble rules of rock n’ roll, without a single illegal low blow. The kind of experience you only get when lightning strikes out of a clear blue sky straight into your skull!
Zasedba
Leon Goewie – vocals
Peter “Slash” Bourbon – guitar
Barend Courbois – bass guitar
Hans In’T Zandt – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Michael Voss – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Michael Eurich – drums on “Rip It Off”
Wolf Hoffmann – guitar solo on “Mind Over Matter”
Arjen Lucassen – guitar solo on “Captain Moonlight”
Mat Sinner – backing vocals
Produkcija
Michael Voss
Seznam skladb
1. Back In The Ring
2. No Mercy
3. Mind Over Matter
4. Captain Moonlight
5. Holy Water
6. Bad Attitude
7. Had Enough
8. Now And Then
9. Cowboy Song
10. Rip It Off
11. Evelyn
Trajanje albuma:49.07
