VENGEANCE – Piece Of Cake (2013)
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Promoted in the ’80s under the slogan ‘Do You Hate Hardrock? Guess you’ve never seen VENGEANCE’ – the band from Brabant, Netherlands, are finally having/taking the cake and hope to eat it too.
Vengeance’s brand new album “Piece Of Cake” is, simply put, an awesome ‘piece’ of masterful classic Hard Rock.
Vengeance’s 1989 album ‘Arabia’ (at that time featuring terrific guitarist Arjen Lucassen) is amongst my top-50 Classic Hard Rock albums of all time. Better prepare your ears, as “Piece Of Cake” blends the fantastic style of ‘Arabia’ with an updated sound through 11 terrific, killer, kick ass tracks.
You’ll be really surprised by the high song quality all over this album, mostly akin late ’80s / early ’90s songwriting and plenty of catchy rhythms, tons of backing vocals, a crazy lead vocalist and the guitars, oh my, the guitars…
The late and great guitarist Jan Somers (RIP) has been replaced by his 21 year-old son Timo Somers (also in Delain) and he’s simply outstanding. This guy shines all over via monster, thick rhythm riffs plus an impressive tone and style during the on-fire soloing.
The CD put your ears in flames since opener “World Arena”, an out and out hard rocker fueled by roaring guitars and a stomping beat. Vocally, Leon Goewie has a haunting classic quality, mad, raspy, hi-pitched and completely riding on his own cloud, yet still blending into the song which soon will have you shouting along to the lines of ‘get ready for the global rush’. The chorus – full of backing vocals – is a blast.
“Tears From The Moon” is a fantastic mid-tempo song which Kal Swan and Lion would be proud of during their era of Trouble In Angel City. The wet “Raintime” is Vengeance heavy with lots of flowing guitar, double bass, a big chorus and a fast guitar solo ala Malmsteen Eclipse-era, while “Sandman” is a groovy, dark semi-midtempo with over-the-top vocals by Goewie recalling Lizzy Borden.
Then arrives a highlight; the bluesy semi-ballad “Back To Square One” in the vein of Gary Moore. This one discovered me a wonderful side of Vengeance, an emotional song with an immediate melancholy feel superbly crafted. The six-string tone is simply wonderful, there’s a delicate bass line adding so much more than rhythm, with the vocals powering through the song shifting up an octave to give it a pleading quality.
“Headquake” and “Mirrors” are two completely different animals with A+ quality as their common trademark and ground. Goewie goes very classy during the latter and its Kingdom Come (the band) inspired chorus.
Title track “Piece Of Cake” is the party song for the album featuring tongue-in-cheek lyrics, fun vocals in the grand tradition of Bon Scott and some ripping Van Halen-like guitars.
“Goodbye Mother Sky” is the final song on the album and it is a very fitting one and it will definitely leave you with very good memories of the band and this CD. It’s somehow an epic track that reeks of ‘Arabia’, almost about three-songs-in-one and all fits together perfectly. Heavy blues shifting to some very Eastern sounding riffs with a very haunting tone to them, moving to some pure blues rock before shirting back down to the arabian theme – and this is all before the vocals even consider joining in and when they do, boy, do they.
“Piece Of Cake” presents Vengeance not only in a highly topical and dynamic style, it also sees the band pay tribute to their own long tradition, as the programmatic album title proves: “Piece Of Cake is a kind of ironic title,” explains Somers, who penned five of the ten new songs.
“This year is Vengeance’s 30th anniversary and it has been quite a rough ride. Line-up changes, the passing away of band members, etc. So we called the album Piece Of Cake because even though Vengeance have been through all this shit, we’ve still come up with a kick-ass album. It was a piece of cake, so to speak.”
I can’t recommend you Vengeance’s “Piece Of Cake” enough. It’s a brilliant Classic Hard Rock album in the best tradition of the genre plenty of killer songs and top-notch musicianship, all baked with a very classy sound & production.
Awesome.
01. World Arena
02. Tears From The Moon
03. Raintime Preload
04. Raintime
05. Sandman
06. Back To Square One
07. Headquake
08. Train
09. Mirrors
10. Piece Of Cake
11. Goodbye Mother Sky
Leon Goewie – Vocals
Timo Somers – Guitars, Backing Vocals
Barend Courbois – Bass, Backing Vocals
John Emmen – Drums
BUY IT !
www.amazon.co.uk/Piece-Cake-Vengeance/dp/B00ENGX9AK
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