Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: UFO
Label: SPV Records
Release: 2012
Runtime: 46:44
Rating: 4/5
U.F.O., the British heavy rock legends who influenced every later sphere of Britain’s young metal scene, are back with a new album after three years. A band caught in the transition between old-school hard rock and the first sparks of the n.w.o.b.h.m.! Anyone who takes themselves seriously and has seen Iron Maiden live even once knows full well that your refined ears were spared nothing when UFO’s best-known song, Doctor Doctor, was played right before Iron Maiden exploded onto the stage.
The years roll by, UFO keep defying them, and so here we have »Seven Deadly«. The band’s twentieth studio album. Even though the lineup is now built around three tomcats from the original members – vocalist Phil Mogg, Andy Parker (drums) and Paul Raymond (keyboards, guitar) – there’s no sign the band is running out of breath. Not in the studio, at least. Despite the seeming irreplaceability of icons like Michael Schenker and Pete Way. Pete Way? Yes. Now him too.»Seven Deadly« is the first album without the man who had a massive influence on the bass playing of Steve Harris himself, and who also introduced Spandex as mandatory stage wear. Last year Way retired because of failing health.
Since 2004 the band has been defying the years with permanent guitarist Vinnie Moore. Moore brought some much-needed changes, of course, which come from his guitar style as well as his arrangements. But in a way that keeps all the protective trademarks of the UFO sound and melos intact! With Moore’s arrival the blues element is more prominent, and the band also can’t hide its occasional flirting with the temperament of a Southern melos. That’s true on the new album too, as in the songs Steal Yourself and Year Of The Gun, and even in the stoner-style hit-making that hits especially dark on the album (the song Mojo Town).
The production is wicked. It’s alive, it’s hugely contrasted. The clear contrast between the cannon-shot snare drum, the wound-up curtain of riffs and, of course, the fantastic Phil Mogg stands out above all, his chrome-plated shine of vocal cords not losing a bit of its intensity in his later years. The sharp, crunching form of the guitar phrase in the opener Fight Night (the lead guitar phrase as if Angus Young of AC/DC himself had whispered it to Moore, poisonously underpinned by the stomp of a cowbell) immediately announces that »Seven Deadly« is an album that promises a lot.
The legends can’t be rattled. Quite the opposite. They’re so experienced that they can’t deny themselves when they compose in their own rocker’s way. »Seven Deadly« is an album of true, authentic UFO origin. It strikes a wonderfully pretty balance in its sense for shaping big, listenable melodies with an epic effect (Angel Station, Burn your House Down), and on top of that the guys again add the right doses of blues spice, classic retro »rhythm n’ blues« rhetoric, along with the Southern coating mentioned above.
The main driving engine in the band today is certainly Vinnie Moore. The man who played guitar on the debut of American speed metallers Vicious Rumors, »Soldiers Of The Night« (1985), as well as on Alice Cooper’s »Hey Stoopid« (1991), is by a wide margin the youngest in the UFO camp. That’s very important, because it keeps up so much of the restlessness and the urge to prove himself that he carries the bulk of the creative ideas, which the quartet then pours into the compact form of old-school rock seasoning. Moore is an exceptional guitarist, and it’s his solo spots, in which he shows an exceptional range in mastering different guitar techniques, that are the moments of the album that significantly air out its image and expose the uniformity of the songs’ framework.
Alongside Moore’s creative genius, it’s the wisdom and seasoned toughness of the rest of the quartet that keeps all of UFO’s special qualities alive even in 2012. Phil Mogg’s voice gets thicker and lower with the years, and the man, who’s famed as one of the most sensitive vocal interpreters in classic rock (just remember the unforgettable classic UFO mini EP Love To Love), sounds exceptional again on the new album. On the tracks where he grabs onto UFO melodicism with a pinch of Southern desperado temperament, the feelings on the album are similar to those Nicky Moore used to string together on Samson albums in the eighties.
»Seven Deadly« is an album tailor-made for all fans of the legacy of potent, crunching rock magic. For everyone looking for daring, directness and arrogance, infused with an erotic playfulness of performance that feels authentic and real, the way only UFO can deliver with their unique attributes. It’s an album with a thick layer of vocal sentiment, a touch of classic melody, finely dosed with the wickedness of the blues tradition. »Seven Deadly« is a renegade of an album with a temperament all its own. And UFO are springing a surprise with it. Yes. They’re still surprising us after more than 40 years of defiance. With the power of unbroken stallions!
Lineup
Phil Mogg – vocals
Vinnie Moore – guitar
Paul Raymond – guitar, keyboards
Andy Parker – drums
Production
Vinne Moore
Tracklist
01.Fight Night
02.Wonderland
03.Mojo Town
04. Angel Station
05. Year Of The Gun
06.The Last Stone Rider
07. Steal Yourself
08. Burn Your House Down
09. The Fear
10. Waving Good Bye
