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Artist: V.O.X. (Voices Of Extreme) |
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There
have been some stunning releases this year and another album that is
sure to cause a stir in the Rock and Metal world is the new album from
New Yorkers V.O.X. (Voices Of Extreme), with their simply stunning
‘Break The Silence’ opus. The
band released their debut album ‘Hypocrite’ in 2006 when long-time
friends Don Chaffin and Bob Brennan got together and with John Macaluso
they put together V.O.X. Now four years later the trio have got back together and with two
new members in the shape of Rob Katrikh and Mike Khalilov, they return with one hell of a
Rock album. The album is as
diverse as it is stunning, mixing a wide spectrum of genres into one
titanic release. The album opens up with the fantastic ‘Damned’, a
real barnstormer of a track to get the album underway, with Chaffin bringing
the power vocals that I can only describe as the bastard son of Axel
Rose and Seb Bach. This power is balanced out by the stunning
musicianship of the rest of the band, with Macaluso’s supreme drumming
and Brennan’s head on bass, while new guys Katrikh and Khalilov bring
the heat on guitars and keyboards respectively . Things continue with another stunning slice of Melodic Metal in
‘Tell Me What It Takes’. A real anthemic rocker that will just blow
you away from the first few chords. The album really comes alive with
the mighty ‘Apocalypse’, imagine GN'R meets the gritty guitar riffs
and pounding bass lines of Korn, then you won't be far away from what this
one has in spades. The diverse nature of this album is never more felt as the Melodic
Hard Rock of the title
track opens up. Big rhythms mixed around a keyboard and a giant
chorus. A
real giant of a track which truly has to be one of best tracks I’ve
heard this year, that’s before I heard some of the other tracks on the
album, which again blew me even further out of the water. One of them has to be the massive massive metal enthused ‘Numb’.
Big ballsy bass lines run through this one, while Chaffin brings that
Bach/Rose styled vocal to the mix once more. Katrikh continues to mixes it up
with some sublime guitar licks, bringing both the classic and modern
metal guitar sounds together in emphatic style. Fantastic. The big meaty tunes keep on coming with ‘Did It Again’ and the
Korn styled ‘Hollow’, before bringing it back down a touch with the
epic stylings of ‘Made Of Stone’. Then it's back up once more with the
thumping ‘Blown Away’. The album closes as it started with another monstrous slice of pure
class in ‘Sorry’. There's ten tracks listed but this album
actually has one more track up
its sleeve, the hidden track ‘Pain’. A track that manages to
bring
together the old and nu school in one mighty tune. This is a truly stunning release, I haven’t been this blow away
in such a long time. This is why I love the music I love.
Every now and
again a gem comes along and revitalises your beliefs that Rock and Metal are
here to stay, no matter what’s deemed trendy or the next big thing.
A
great man once wrote “Long Live Rock and Roll” ... never a true word was
spoken. |
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Tracklisting: 1. Damned |
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All content copyright of The Mayfair Mall Zine unless otherwise stated. |
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