VEGA – Kiss Of Life (2010)
includes enhanced video
VEGA, featuring former KICK vocalist Nick Workman and the successful and respected song writing partnership of Tom and James Martin (House Of Lords, Ted Poley of Danger Danger, Khymera, Sunstorm to name but a few) are about to take the Melodic Rock world by storm.
Their debut album “Kiss Of Life” features 12 rock songs which mix classic Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, with a pinch of U2 and Journey.
Tom and James met Nick 10 years ago when KICK was supporting Thunder on the first of their farewell tours. In the time that followed, the guys had always wanted to work with Nick, and opportunity came knocking in May 2009.
The two brothers and drummer Dan Chantrey met Nick for a second time at a U.K. rock festival. Conversations about movies and music finally moved on to the all important question… “When are we going to work together?”.
The answer ended up being the next day, and VEGA was born.
The chemistry between the guys was obvious and two brothers became four!
VEGA wrote 25 songs in the coming months and chose the best for recording. No expense was spared and a top UK recording studio was booked and John Greatwood, a producer with numerous UK and European top 10 albums and singles, was on board.
Dennis Ward stepped up to the plate to put the final touches to the album, mastering it in his studio in Germany.
The disc opens with “Into The Wild”, a real upbeat driving melodic rocker which has fantastic hook laden guitar work and insanely catchy keyboards and a huge sing along chorus. There’s a great driving guitar riff throughout the song giving it a fantastic energy.
“Kiss Of Life” truly sounds like a Kiss of Life to a genre in bad need of freshening up before the old guard get too stale. It’s a rockin’ beast of a song with some soaring vocals from Nick just proving what a strong singer he is. The chorus is out of this world and is a catchy as hell sing-along and the keyboard’s on it are orgasmic.
“One Of A Kind” is a real smack in the face and howling wake up call to your auditory system, telling it it’s time to move it’s time to ROCK! Full of lots of lovely pomp fueled keyboards.
“Staring At The Sun” is beyond awesome, with a the delicious keyboard hook on the verses and a marvelous chorus. Drummer Dan Chantrey also shines here giving the song some real punch.
“Too Young For Wings” is a stripped down emotive ballad with some beautiful intricate guitar work and great sweeping atmospheric keyboard work.
“Headlights” has a bittersweet feel to it especially in the fantastic opening intricate guitar playing. This song is an AOR classic, one of the more traditional sounding songs on the album and it’s a song that bands like Journey would kill for.
“Hearts Of Glass” : they should have opened the album with this song, a real full force rocker with an anthemic fist pumping shout it out loud chorus.
“Stay With Me” is another song like a modern Journey. It has an insanely beautiful and melodic chorus and again Nick’s vocals are in top form! Those Keyboard flourishes are again absolutely insane and the driving guitars give the song a fantastic energy and impact.
“Wonderland” has a dark vibe to it – a great moody melodic rock masterpiece with some great guitar licks.
Power ballad “What It Takes” has some great keyboards, atmospheric and beautiful, with amazing vocals which see’s Nick excelling again! There’s a killer guitar solo on here too, lyrically great too!
“S.O.S” is a true melodic rock anthem with a driving upbeat, featuring a soaring sing along chorus and a monster melodic guitar solo.
A fantastic closer to quite possibly the greatest album of this year.
I can’t rant and praise this band enough, this is quite simply a stunning album filled with infectious melodic rock goodness. 12 songs that form the anthems of the next generation of melodic rockers across the globe.
The Martin brothers have delighted the genre writing for other artists some of the best songs of the past 5 years : Khymera, Danny Vaughn, Joe Lynn Turner’s Sunstorm, Issa, House Of Lords, Ted Poley, Los Angeles, Harry Hess’ First Signal… the list is endless.
Now it’s time for them to rock the world.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
01 – Into The Wild
02 – Kiss Of Life
03 – One Of A Kind
04 – Staring At The Sun
05 – Too Young For Wings
06 – A.N.other
07 – Headlights
08 – Hearts Of Glass
09 – Stay With Me
10 – Wonderland
11 – What It Takes
12 – S.O.S.
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Kiss Of Life (HQ video)
Nick Workman – vocals
Tom Martin – guitars
James Martin – keyboards
Dan Chantrey – drums
IF YOU LIKE IT, BUY IT!
