The Band
| Greatness | Heaviness | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| The best stuff on earth. We're not worthy! |  |
Like a leaf | |
| Most excellent music |  |
You can juggle with this stuff | |
| Enjoy the melodies | |
No problem, I can handle that | |
| Hmmm....background music | |
Get off your backside and rock! | |
| They call themselves a rock band..... | |
Bloody osmium mate | |
IMPACT (1998)
We may be reaching the end of the millennium, now less than two years away, but Velocity have no intention to go with the flow of trashy music that is destined to flood the airwaves - be it rock or electro-crap. This album will bring back flooding memories (for those who are old enough) of the good old rock’n’roll that dominated the mid-80s. Hard R'n'R re-lived, we have "Impact".
The first few seconds that sound the album contain one of the most glorious guitar riffs I've ever heard on a rock record. An outstanding guitar intro, in the vein of Xenon, which you've just gotta hear! But once the intro's done, we get a standard 80s hard rock sound (a bit disconnected from the AORish intro I find). It is catchy and aggressive, and starts the album well.
"Riot Goin’ On" is a typical 80s rocker, with an element of ‘party’ in it which is just what you could expect from a title like this. This would be great in concert. "Supernatural Lover" sets out to be a sweet ballad, but soon crashes down as a hard rocker, with a superb acoustic sounding guitar to back up the vocals - one of my favourites. "Julia Ann" and "Janine" may have similar titles, but different styles - the former being an aggressive rocker with an impressive drum beat, and the later a glorious power ballad. Both are exceptional songs.
The second half of the record has two more fast rockers, "She's Been Around" and "One Minute to Midnight" - both in the full-on 80s style with catchy choruses. "She's Been Around" is very similar Hardline. "Love is Dangerous" is a slightly slower track with particularly cool guitar riffings (permitting air guitar!) and is another favourite. "More than Tonight" is the second ballad which is sweet, but too over the top for me - I find the chorus hard to listen to.
The album closes with a solid rocking and melodic instrumental, "Open Road" which is very good as far as instrumentals go, precisely played - but without vocals I find they always lack emotion.
The vocals throughout the album are very impressive. None of this whining or screaming stuff - a good strong voice with emotion and melody. The guitar playing is also amazing- some of the solos are quite outstanding.
This is a band in the 90s playing 80s rock even better than it was, and in a positive way. Well I'll back that, I missed out on the 80s. A good buy for any and all melodic rock fans.
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