Label: Mascot Label Group
Release date: May 29, 2020
Production: Bob Marlette
Album length: 42.13 min
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 9.5/10
Adrian Vandenberg is the Dutch guitarist whose contribution, talent and chops left a serious mark on cementing the sound and spirit of eighties hard rock. First in his own Vandenberg, and later when he joined Whitesnake. Considering that the Dutchman has ramped up his live and songwriting activity again in recent years, it was only a matter of time before he’d gradually turn Vandenberg’s Moonkings, with whom he recorded and released two very good studio albums, into Vandenberg. To be precise, he flat-out buried Moonkings, and from the ashes Vandenberg rose again.
For the reactivated legendary Dutch hard rock band, he managed to land one of the most prominent singers of the new generation of hard rock vocalists, the outstanding Chilean Ronnie Romero. The guy hardly needs an introduction anymore. Suffice it to say that Richie Blackmore picked him up when reactivating Rainbow, and that he also sings in CoreLeoni, led by Gotthard guitarist Leo Leoni. Vandenberg also thought long and hard about how to put the rhythm section together. The new Vandenberg bassist is none other than his fellow Dutchman Randy Van Der Elst, who also plays bass for N.W.O.B.H.M legends Tank, while the drum stool went to the no less Dutch Koen Herfst, a man with plenty of mileage of his own (he’s worked with Bobby Kimball (Toto), Doro and Epica, among others).
In the mid-eighties, Vandenberg were a hard rock melting pot, developed under the heavy influence of Deep Purple, Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, UFO, and a bit later also MSG and Whitesnake, or Bad Company in the Brian Howe era. If Europe were the Scandinavian answer to these influences, then Vandenberg were the Dutch one. Thanks to Adrian’s astonishing talent, Vandenberg got a good deal of attention and opened shows in the eighties for the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Rush, Kiss, Scorpoins and MSG. Adrian’s magic fingers and stage charisma didn’t escape Whitesnake boss David Coverdale either, who lured Adrian into his ranks.
What the album “2020” delivers is, in every respect, more than just a brilliant nod to all three Vandenberg albums released in the eighties. Why more? Because “2020” also has a remarkable fire and creative freshness, so it’s not just some nostalgic reunion show! It’s a completely different chemistry, a different magic! With a new, updated sound that still keeps the essential trademarks of the eighties in its character, so you can happily sum it up in one sentence even in 2020: “That’s Vandenberg!” Vandenberg, then, who have taken an artistic step forward. It’s striking to realize that “2020” is a kind of elegant transformation of the magic of the best and most visible things eighties hard rock had to offer, brought into new times.
Adrian Vandenberg’s playing once again delivers some fascinating phrases that make it clear there’s a musician behind them who breathed and lived the eighties. Shout, Shitstorm, the dark opening wrecking ball Shadow Of the Night, and the apocalyptic mini-suite Hell Or High Water, will be adopted on the spot by fans of Rainbow, Dio, Whitesnake and MSG, even though the record has a charisma all its own and, first and foremost, embodies the name Vandenberg! The rest of the material speaks in a similar way too, with Light Up the Sky (in the verse) being a distant cousin of the Whitesnake classic Bad Boys. Vandenberg also put an updated version of their eighties hit Burning Heart on the new album. With new charisma and new chemistry, it’s unfair to even compare it to the original. All you can add is that it’s brilliantly refreshed, and its presence on “2020” strengthens the album’s powerful statement. Adrian Vandendberg is a man of exceptional refinement who follows, with filigree precision, the perfect placement of notes into strong, compact motivic structures. Every detail, every harmonic flourish, every transitional passage, everything on this album as far as the guitar goes, is crafted with remarkable feel and execution aimed at great perfection.
Adrian Vandenberg has once again done his job with exceptional artistic brilliance. The man has shown once more what a great songwriter he is and that resting on old glory means nothing to him. All that counts for him is tangible artistic substance, which has to be a credible reflection of creative inspiration. And “2020” is chock-full of it! The choruses deliver a musical and atmospheric crescendo in every song and grab you hard, in a brilliant dialogue of infectious, venomously piercing phrasing and Ronnie Romero’s bravura vocal acrobatics.
But Adrian wouldn’t have managed to make all of this happen in 2020 without the legendary producer Bob Marlette and, of course, the monstrous vocalist Ronnie Romero, who simply proves that he’s the best of his generation of singers right now! So this is no reunion of grizzled nostalgics lost in pathetic attempts to revive the magic of their recent past, something they can’t bring back anyway! This is an album that embodies the traditional and the current in the same breath and, as such, a new birth for a legendary hard rock band. A rebirth in the truest sense. For new times. With a new focus. Let’s hope Adrian keeps this fire burning in the years to come, because a hard rock achievement this good was really not something anyone could have expected! After what “2020” delivers, we can only wish for more of the same!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
01. Shadows of the Night
02. Freight Train
03. Hell and High Water
04. Let It Rain
05. Ride Like The Wind
06. Shout
07. Shitstorm
08. Light Up The Sky
09. Burning Heart – 2020
10. Skyfall
Line-up:
Ronnie Romero – vocals
Adrian Vandenberg – guitar, keyboards
Randy van der Elsen – bass
Koen Herfst – drums
Guest musicians:
Rudi Sarzo – bass
Brian Tichy – drums
