THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Tag: album review (Page 51 of 469)

VENDETTA – Brain Damage

July 2, 2024 /

This is the second original Vendetta album, that appeared in ’88. The band would reconvene in 2007 and have since released another four records. Other than America, the German thrash scene seemed to produce the most bands, of which, Vendetta along with Exhumer and Paradox were the flag bearers. It’s a mystery to me that after releasing such a beast of record as this that they disappeared.

War, Brain Damage, and Conversation are up there with some of the best early thrash tracks. Metallica are obvious influences here but they have taken that blueprint and ran with it. They look so young on the back cover and the youthful enthusiasm just lets them go for it. Favourite track is the instrumental craziness that is Fade To Insanity. Touches of Fade To Black and early Iron Maiden are in there for sure, but overall it’s just a whole bunch of fun.

This was such a great time for new metal bands sprouting up, and I remember it well.

7.5/10 from The Grooveman.

IMPELLITTERI – System X

July 2, 2024 /

This album originally came out in 2002 but this version is the Night Of The Vinyl Dead reissue. For a guy who started out singing pop songs in Australia, Graham Bonnet has sang with some serious hotshot guitar slingers in his career. I don’t think any of this would have happened if Ritchie Blackmore hadn’t taken a sideways step and picked him for the Rainbow gig.

This baby is pounding right from the get go with guitars wailing and shredding in every available space in the music, as you would expect from any Impellitteri record. United We Stand is epic, even by Impellitteri standards, it has killer monster riffage and unreal soloing from Glen Sobel pounding the hell out of the kit, and Graham giving it his all with the vocals. Phew! 

Unusually for me, with all this awesome power metal on display it’s a more traditional hard rockin’ tune that is my favourite track on the album, and End Of The World is that song. A nice, dramatic, and eerie intro leads into a killer swing of a groove with a cool chugga riff, and I love the hook and chorus. I like the way Chris Impellitteri combines the neo-classical shredding with huge, heavy, and crunchy riffs and rhythm, it sets him apart from the Yngwie’s of this world as the whole Paganini thing is wearing a bit thin.

If you like your metal with packs of crunch and tons of melody with plenty of groove then you should really be checking out the band’s entire catalog as no one does it better. Cool band and cool record.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

Nasty Idols – Gigolos On Parade

June 23, 2024 /

This is Nasty Idols’ first album, which was released in ’89. It is slightly different sounding to the glam sleaze sound of their later albums, this one is more of a hair band/melodic rock vibe. Strangely enough, the band themselves hate this album as they said it was not representative of who they are. It’s nowhere near as bad as they make out. Although Andy Pierce’s vocal does fit the sleaze thing better and after this album they fired guitarist Jonnie Wee as he’s the one with the hard rockin’ credentials.

There are a couple of songs that I really like on this album, namely the opener Gimme What I Want (which is my favourite), it’s a great up tempo rocker. I also like Shy China, another track with some groove to get the toe tappin’. There are also some pure AOR moments like She’s On Fire and Lonely which any fan of the genre would lap up.

It’s definitely an album and a band looking for an identity which they would find after this.

7/10 from The Grooveman.

ACCEPT – Humanoid

June 23, 2024 /

This is album number 17 For Accept, and it’s ploughing the same path as the previous six albums since Mark Tornillo took over vocal duties with the band. If it’s not broke why fix it right? Big fat crunchy guitars, pounding rhythms, and the occasional anthem to get you up and rocking. There are not too many old school metal bands that are making good music, so we should treasure them while they are still pounding.

I like the Udo-less version and I don’t get all the hate for the direction that Wolf Hoffmann has taken the band in. If everyone is being honest, the albums since Blood Of The Nations are better than what came before. Sure, Restless And Wild and Balls To The Wall are genre defining records in terms of influencing the euro metal scene, but these modern records have an edge and sound that sets them apart. So what about the new one then?

Well, as I said it’s more of the same but that’s not a bad thing. You get pounding double kick blasters like Diving Into Sin, which is my personal favourite, and the title track which really hit the spot. They also give a tip of the hat to old school Accept stompers in the Balls To Wall tradition like Man Up and Nobody Gets Out Alive.

Yes, Accept are alive and well and long may they do so.

8.5/10 from The Grooveman.

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