Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: WAMI (White Appice Mendoza Iggy)
Label: Metal Mind Productions
Released: 12.05.2014
Running time: 50:46
Rating: 3.5/5
WAMI is a new hard rock project that brings together three seasoned players, Doogie White (vocals), Vinny Appice (drums) and Marco Mendoza (bass), with a big new discovery from Poland, the barely 16-year-old Iggy Gwadera (guitar). In 2011 Thin Lizzy, as support for Judas Priest, played the closing leg of the tour in Poland too. Also on the bill as openers that night were local hard rockers Anti Tank Nun, with Iggy in the lineup. The arsenal of guitar chops he showed off blew Marco Mendoza away, and after the gig Marco hinted to the kid that the two of them simply had to record an album together someday. And the word became flesh. Vinny Appice and Doogie White were both won over by the demo sketches and jumped on board! And just like that, the project came to life. Of course, it got hefty backing from the Polish label Metal Mind Productions, plus contributions from a bunch of Polish musicians who helped shape the album’s final form.
The music of WAMI is really a colorful mix of the backgrounds these three veterans come from. No hide-and-seek on this album! And since Iggy is a classically trained guitarist with a huge gift, you could call it an innate feel for big melodies, and since the album leans heavily on other Polish musicians (especially for backing vocals), it also carries a strong neo-classical streak and, as you’d expect, a touch of epic bombast. Then there are the heavy imprints of blues and stripped-down, raw hard rock mustard, weighed down by chunky guitar phrases and the devilish pulse of a rhythm section where Appice (with his cannon-fire hits) and the ever-melodic Mendoza take up a ton of room in the sonic picture. Despite the gloomy structures lurking beneath the airs of The Resistance (it drags along with a poisonous, classic Saxon vibe, and tells of Scottish bravery, since Doogie White is a Scot after all), and right after it the proper mini-epic suite Exodus (The Red Sea Crossing), the bombast of the lead melodies and vocal lines takes the dominant position, at points even flirting with AOR sophistication.
If you went looking for musical parallels between WAMI and pioneers like Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Whitesnake, DIO and Thin Lizzy, it’s precisely that pronounced bombast that links it first to Rainbow and DIO, and you can even feel bits of good old Saxon. Black Sabbath too, though that’s less obvious and works more from the background (Dio-era Black Sabbath, of course). The Rider, Young Blood and Get Of My Way owe a lot of their inspiration to the spirit and legacy of Rainbow.
Doogie White still sounds immensely appealing with his polished vocal style, which has always put him close to Ronnie James Dio, while up in the higher register the guy can’t help recalling Biff Byford (Saxon) in his better days, even though Biff and Doogie are close in birth year. That’s also the answer to why White fits so well in the current lineup of NWOBHM veterans Tank.
Clichés are present, of course, but they don’t get in the way. They only ruffle your feathers now and then, or they’re very cleverly »disguised« or, put plainly, »repackaged« and served up in fresh wrapping, recipes from old foxes. One cliché that does get in the way is the song One More For Rock ‘N’ Roll, mostly because of the endless repetition of the chorus in the outro, as well as the verse of the ballad Guardian Of Your Heart, which drifts into the phrasing of Queensryche’s evergreen Silent Lucidity. Young Iggy shows remarkable »attitude« for a 16-year-old when the conversation turns to the gospel of guitar playing. He’s got no shortage of the versatility a hard rock guitarist absolutely has to be armed with to hold his own with such seasoned musical shamans as White, Mendoza and Appice, and he finds his way brilliantly in the ornamental guitar touches and lead phrases. His solos are a chapter in themselves, too, with hellish speed, precision and control of the instrument, the product of the schooled drill of this neo-classically trained master. Over the years the kid will keep maturing and upgrading both his sound and his style. The project’s exceptional power and credibility were already announced back in March this year by the lead single Wild Woman (You Oughta Know), which, even next to the rest of the album’s songs, is one of its most beautifully cut classic hard rock firestarters. It’s in this very track that the guitarist shows an extraordinary agility, for his age, in picking the right solutions, as well as an incredible »layered« grasp of the musical universe.
All you fans of classic hard rock albums by Dio, Rainbow and Dio-era Black Sabbath need to check out »Kill the King«. It won’t leave you indifferent in any way!
Lineup
Doogie White – vocals
Iggy Gwadera – guitar
Marco Mendoza – bass
Vinny Appice – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Jarek ‘Chilek’ Chilkiewicz – electric, acoustic guitar
Wojtek Cugowski – electric, acoustic guitar, backing vocals (tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10)
Piotr Cugowski – lead vocals (track 4), backing vocals (tracks 4, 5, 8, 9, 11), acoustic guitar (track 11)
Darek Switala – backing vocals (track 5)
Tomasz Golab – bass (track 5)
Szymek Synowka – drums (track 9)
Marek Trojanowicz – keyboards
Dorota Wozniak-Mocarska – cello (track 11)
Choir “The Shouting Wives Choir”
Eliza Cugowska – backing vocals (track 5)
Krystyna Cugowska – backing vocals (track 5)
Ewa Chilkiewicz – backing vocals (track 5)
Track list
1. Exodus (The Red Sea Crossing)
2. The Rider
3. Wild Woman (You Oughta Know)
4. Guardian Of Your Heart
5. One More For Rock’n’Roll
6. Heart Of Steel
7. The Resistance
8. Young Blood
9. Get Out Of My Way
10. Transition
11. I Don’t Wanna Lose You
