Artist: Vanderbuyst
Release: 2010
Runtime: 40:00
Rating: 3/5
Vanderbuyst are a Dutch hard-hitting rock trio. The lads decided to play by the book of the traditional seventies rock school and sprinkle in a few hints of the early N.W.O.B.H.M. movement. So no, the self-titled debut doesn’t hide some deep, intellectual musical doctrine, but the job gets done with heart!
One quick look at the track titles and it’s easy to tell that the record is partly a tribute to the famous American porn star Traci Lords, who Vanderbuyst play and sing about in one of the songs on this studio debut. At this point the band comes across as a bit naive and childish, but you can’t really hold it against them, since these guys are total newcomers who are still bursting with excess testosterone. And of course the lyrics, with all that rapture and relentless wailing in the opening To Last Forever, Stealing Your Thunder or New Orleans, can’t fire people up as freshly and excitingly as they did three decades ago. Today they sound rather juvenile.
The Vanderbuyst philosophy goes like this. A classically built guitar riff, held up by furious rhythmic machinery with no double kick, but with clear dynamics and the lively rumble of a fat bass line. The background soundscape is often filled with layers of multipart vocal harmonies and even the occasional keyboard with that classic Hammond nostalgia sound (To Last Forever). The solos are played over the rhythm line only, with no riff backing. The first two songs, To Last Forever and Tiger, are direct examples of reviving the traits of classic rock bands like U.F.O. and/or Thin Lizzy, which draws parallels with N.W.O.B.H.M. bands like Tokyo Blade, Tygers Of Pan Tang and Diamond Head. The last one, From Pillar to Post, is dressed the same way. All three songs carry a hint of that obscure grubbiness that clearly set the British wave of new metal bands of the early eighties apart from other genre forms.
Then there’s New Orleans, which sounds more old-school, firmly in the territory of something like Wishbone Ash at the turn of the seventies into the eighties. The soloing is a mix of the classic approach with a bit of a bluesy haze thrown in. The first role model that comes to mind is, of course, his excellency Michael Schenker. And then there’s Traci Lords again, set in the template groove of Rainbow, which even the lively instrumental middle section doesn’t stray from. The band has an innate feel for melody. It sparkles especially in the effective use of vocal harmonies, which in the catchy chorus of the punchily wound-up Stealing Your Thunder go full Uriah Heep, and might even catch some AOR fans off guard.
Track no. 6 also has a bit of beginner’s naivety. It’s a U.F.O. cover, Rock Bottom, which follows the version of the song from the live album “Strangers in the Night” (1979). It’s played brilliantly, no doubt about that, and Vanderbuyst once again prove here that they’re very good musicians. Live they’re a tight unit, and this track was recorded that way too. It was played live in the studio. The band was obviously so thrilled with it that they decided to stick it in among the rest of their original material. So where does the hint of naivety come from? There are only seven songs, and out of 40 minutes of music, a full 11 are taken up by the U.F.O. cover. That’s a partial downgrade of their own originality, even if, as said, the song is played brilliantly.
So the debut from Vanderbuyst paints a picture of a promising young band that has the basic musical concepts totally figured out. They know how to build a compact, punchy song with an insidiously seductive riff that catches fire “on the first listen”. Because the guys do it with heart, without a speck of cosmetics or the frills of studio prosthetics, the album has a distinctly live feel and a convincing rocker charge, the kind a listener can only wish for. The band will have to define its own identity more clearly down the road, since the songs remind you a little too much of one legendary band now, another one the next time, so if I allowed myself a pinch of malice, I could call the “Vanderbuyst” debut a “tribute to” album. With the drive, open and wholehearted determination they’ve shown here, there’s no doubt the lads are capable of taking a decisive step forward and defining their own originality.
Lineup
Jochem Jonkman – vocals, bass guitar
Willem Verbuyst – guitar
Barry Van Esbroek – drums
Production
Vanderbuyst & Pieter G. Kloos
Track list
1. To Last Forever (06:11)
2. Tiger (04:24)
3. New Orleans (04:34)
4. Traci Lords (04:20)
5. Stealing your Thunder (03:44)
6. Rock Bottom (Ufo cover, Live in Studio) (11:28)
7. Form Pillar to Post (Live in Studio) (05:18)
