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Artist: Mecca |
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In
2002 Mecca took the Melodic Rock world by storm with their debut release.
The band formed by frontman Joe Vana, aided by David Hungate, Fergie Fredrikson and Jim Peterik, put together an awesome release
which had the up tempo rockers and superb power driven ballads, that were
rated along with some of the biggest bands in genre. In fact being tipped
by many as the
next Journey or Foreigner in some quarters. Now
some years later the band return with their second release 'Undeniable',
which has been some six years in the making. Vana and Christian Wolff starting work back in 2005 on the follow up,
but it wasn't until 2007 that things really started to get going, as Vana was
joined on the writing front by Tommy Denander, and the whole writing
process took things to whole new level, as the pair soon found a vision
to take Melodic Rock to the next level. But things were soon
put on hold again with the death of Vana’s long-time friend and
co-producer Bryan Mitchell, but Vana still took his vision forward,
bringing in session masters like Pat Mestellotto, Tony Levin alongside
Denander and Wolff. Vana
then started to bring the core of the band together, with Rick Vitek filling the
drum stool, Wally Hustin taking up bass duties, Brian Moritz and Eric
Ragno lending their keyboard prowess, while filling in the six string duties
were Mark
Alano and Joe’s son Joey. So
now 'Undeniable' finally gets to see the light of day and once again, Vana and the rest of the band have
not only unleashed a worthy follow up to their
debut release, but also an album that optimises the new structure Melodic Rock
has seen in the past few years. Yes we all would like to go back to
those heady days of the 80’s, where Melodic Rock dominated the world,
but those days are gone and we have to look forward if we want to
survive in this ever-changing world of music. The
album is pure bred melody rich music at its finest. Not the best album
of 2011 for me, but one that definitely ranks up there in the top 20 or so, with some sublime
moments like the opener ‘Perfect World’, the Totoesque ‘Did It For
Love’. The excellent almost INXS feeling of ‘Life’s Too Short’, the
tempestuous rocker ‘W2W’ and the ballad ‘As I Walk Alone’, all
hitting the mark for me. I’m sure the old guard of Melodic Rock
fans will just take this to their hearts, and praise where praise is due,
this is a good release and with word that the band have already started on their third album,
I’m sure the future for Mecca is rosy if they continue to take their
music forward. |
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Tracklisting: 1.
Perfect World |
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