THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

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THUNDER – The Thrill Of It All

July 2, 2024 /

Album number four for Britain’s favourite melodic rockers, and it’s more of the same R’n’B tinged hard rock that they do so well. But, as with all their records, there are always a couple of tracks that don’t quite cut it. If you took all the best bits from all of their albums, then you would have one hell of a record.

There is no doubt that Danny is one of the best vocalists out there and I’m sure he could sing the phone book and it would sound epic. Tracks like Don’t Wait Up, which normally would just be okay, are lifted by the wonderful tone and feel to his voice. However, Pilot Of My Dreams and Something About You are really great songs that don’t come around too often.

Cosmetic Punk is just superb, it’s my favourite on the record. It’s a killer old school R’n’B riff sped up with an awesome groove that is so infectious and guaranteed to get you up and groovin’. The last side is given over to four rousin live renditions of tracks from the record.

I’m not sure if we will get any more Thunder records and tours as Danny is not too well since he has had a stroke. I wish him well.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

PAT TRAVERS – Radio Active

July 2, 2024 /

This was quite an odd album for Pat. Before it was released, Tommy Aldridge and Pat Thrall had already left the band. It didn’t too well in sales either, which resulted in Polydor dropping the band. However, PT would sue the label for breach of contract and he won, which let him put out another two albums for the label which (surprise surprise) didn’t do a whole bunch either.

This album was slammed for having too much emphasis on keyboards rather than wailing guitar, but I’m not sure where that came from as there is plenty of guitar all over the album. Whoever came up with that quote only listened to the instrumental track, Untitled which admittedly has that distorted Hammond sound that was on Crash And Burn. The main reason why it didn’t too well is that there are too many softer songs. My favourite song is the opener, New Age Music. It’s a good old PT belter.

I’ve been a fan of PT since the first album when he came to the UK and I saw him playing in small clubs up close and personal, which is basically what he is doing today.

7.5/10 from The Grooveman.

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.

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