VANDENBERG’S MOONKINGS – ST (2014)

* Updated

Happily after many years of absence (too many), former Whitesnake guitarist Adrian Vandenberg is finally back with his brand now band VANDENBERG’S MOONKINGS, a whole new group formed with unknown but talented youngsters, especially vocalist Jan Hoving.
Vandenberg’s Moonkings self-titled debut will be released next February 24, and believe me, it rocks.

What is good with Adrian Vandenberg beside his passionate guitar playing, is that he’s a reliable musician loyal to his roots and a trustworthy songwriter, but he’s also a visionary of its own kind, and with this new album he produced exactly the style of music we all hope / imagined secretly and we expected: strong, melodic, organic and real rock music focused on the traditional Hard Rocking spirit yet slightly modernized, but most of all untarnished and uplifting by its genuine juvenile energy.
It’s true that the sudden break up of Adrian’s short-lived affair Manic Eden (with the great Rudy Sarzo / Tommy Aldridge rhythmic pair and singer Ron Young) had left us with a bitter taste and a unfinished business feeling, but with this first album with the Moonkings the things seems to takes another time, their natural order, like if the stars and the planets were again perfectly in conjunction.

Indeed, it feels while listening to this album what is a like if we lived for once in a perfect universe, the music flows with a pristine fluidity and at the same time exciting but yet familiar, surprising but still comfortable by using many traditional and well known elements as the groovy Hendrix riffage of “Leeches”, the Zeppelin vibes of “Close To You” / “Leave This Town”, or the beautiful acoustic intro for “Out Of Reach”.
Of course the Whitesnake’s feel it’s in Adrian’s veins, as heard on the breathy Coverdalian “One Step Behind” and the over the top “Steal Away”, but also the American modern feel of “Breathing” completed with subtle strings layers and even the Tyketto flavor present at the beginning of “Feel It” .

The sound on the recording is quite flawless, vintage warm but still crisp and delicate, a real studio mastery in the proud method of the grand influential artists and far from amateurish of many cheap releases, with each instrument completely interleaved with each other, all enhanced by keen discreet backing vocals.
Adrian Vandenberg holds a true savoir-faire in crafting those songs, brilliant rockers in a real classic (in every sense of the meaning) album canvas.
The final surprise is the Whitesnake cover of “Sailing Ships” presented in a new arrangement, performed in a new fashion right in between the original version and the acoustic performance as shown in ‘Starkers In Tokyo’. And yes, we have the one and only David Coverdale on guest vocals in fine form providing his best signature pipes for this superb cut once written by Vandenberg for ’89s ‘Slip Of The Tongue’. A killer tribute to their mutual past.

The prevailing thought is that Classic Hard Rock is an old recipe, an apathetic style that will not possess genius or new idea, well my friends, it is well and truly wrong and this album is the obvious and tangible evidence of fact
With the aforementioned highlights and great rockers such as “Lust And Lies”, “Nothing Touches” or “Line Of Fire”, Adrian and his bunch is performing with glory a new fresh and updated prototype of this Rock magic style that should be included in the DNA of every Hard Rock fan.
Highly Recommended.

You’ve seen it first here, at 0dayrox

01 – Lust And Lies
02 – Close To You
03 – Good Thing
04 – Breathing
05 – Steal Away
06 – Line Of Fire
07 – Out Of Reach
08 – Feel It
09 – Leave This Town
10 – One Step Behind
11 – Leeches
12 – Nothing Touches
13 – Sailing Ships (feat. David Coverdale)

Adrian Vandenberg – Guitars, Backing Vocals
Jan Hoving – Lead Vocals
Sem Christoffel – Bass
Mart Nijen Es – Drums

Pre-Order:
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00HHIN9LK

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