VEGA — Kiss of Life (review)

VEGA — Kiss of Life album cover Album · 2010 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Stephen
Coming out late at the corner of 2010, Vega blew every melodic rock fans rooftop away with their bombastic melodies, delicate arrangement, and insane harmonies. Men behind this project is Nick Workman of Kick and the talented musician/songwriter Tom/James Martin who are also responsible in writing songs for House of Lords, Sunstorm, and Khymera. Topped with the producing skill of Dennis Ward, if you're familiar with those names, you'll get the idea of how wonderful this package will be. The strength of 'Kiss of Life' laid on the carefully picked songs where almost none of them are fillers, the tight musical skill showcase, and the balance put of sweet guitar tones and dense keyboard sound.

The first three tracks are my instant favorites. "Into The Wild" and "One of A Kind" are keyboard driven elegant melodic rock, the chorus is unbelievably stunning. Somehow there are things inside those songs that remind me of Eclipse and W.E.T. The title track, "Hearts of Glass", and "Stay With Me" wrapped with a punchy tunes, heavy but not harsh, comfortably sliding on an AOR platform with an uptempo rhythm running side by side. "Headlights" is another highlight, what a chorus they have there, I can sense a bit of U2 flavor but overall, a very solid melodic rock song. "What It Takes" and "S.O.S" are also huge. Workman's vocal is comparable to The Poodles' Jakob Samuel and unraspy version of Andy Deris.

"Kiss of Life" is a big surprise, an impressive collaborative result, and belongs in my top 10 albums of 2010. If you like a softer edge melodic metal, lush of brilliant keyboards and emotional vocal, surrounded by the aura of 80s pompous AOR, this album is a must buy for you. Perhaps the low point is the lack of innovative ideas and that dejavu feel, you swear you've heard them somewhere 2-3 years ago, but other than that, Vega successfully compiled an extravagant set of sensational songs in their debut to close the year.
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