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Artist: Skill In Veins |
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The wealth of talent to come out of Europe over the past few years has been phenomenal and even more so is the number of class Melodic and Hard Rock bands. For genres that are supposed to be dead and buried it’s great to hear of new bands who are not seduced by the trend of the day and are willing to inject new life to the genres we love so much. One band that are sure to send pulses racing amongst the fans of good honest rock music are Italian rockers Skill In Veins, a band who have been put together around the guitar and song writing skills of young gun Andrea “Andream” Lanza. Lanza was taken under the wing of keyboard maestro and producer Alessandro Del Vecchio of Glen Hughes and more recently Eden’s Curse fame. Del Vecchio used his contacts to bring together a band worthy of Lanza’s guitar skills and songs, and so the band of Francesco Jovino on drums. Nik Mazzucconi on bass and the superb vocals talent that is Gabriele Gozzi was born. The bands self titled debut is a stunning mix of great hard rock and stunning melody filled songs and in Gozzi they have found the perfect match vocally for this style of music. The album bursts into life with ‘Can't Ride My Soul’, a great kick-ass rocker that really sets the mark for the rest of the album to follow and follow it does. This album really is pure bred Hard Rock as it used to be, but it never seems dated as it punches above it weight with some stunning slices of rock with the likes of ‘Skulls On The Way’, a groove filled thumper. Think Solinger Skid Row with this one. Then it's all guns blazing from Lanza on ‘Youth Times’, a gritty sleazed out rocker. There is a brief pause to take a breathe as things slow down with the excellent ‘I’m Living My Life’, a track that reminds me of Firehouse in parts, and again Lanza pulls no punches on the six string. One of the heaviest and one of my favourite tracks off the album is ‘Sick Mind’, a real ball-buster of a Hard Rock track, showing the band can bring the big guns when needed. The band take the pedal off the accelerator just a moment and bring a little bluesy feel to proceedings with ‘You’re Doing It Again’ and even more so with the superb ‘Just On Drink’, before the ballad ‘Don’t Need You To Cry’. These three act as a buffer for the final three tracks off the album, three great rock tunes that will have you dancing in the aisles too. First up it's ‘The Way Out’ a down to earth 80’s vibed rocker, then it’s the groove filled ‘We Don’t Cry’, again Gozzi showing what a great vocalist he is a real star of the future. The
album closes in fine style with ‘We Don’t Believe In Fables’, a
real epic track that comes in just under eight minutes long and is
another highlight for me. This song shows the band aren’t afraid
to push the envelope when it comes to great Hard Rock and ends what has
to be one of the real surprise packages of the year so far.
Definitely a band to check out. |
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| Tracklisting:
1.
Can't Ride My Soul |
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