Vengeance

Review SOUL COLLECTOR on www.Lordsofmetal.nl

The come-back album‘Back In The Ring’ from 2006 was very well received and also the liverecord ‘Same, Same…But Different’ from 2007 showed much potential. Itreally seems that Vengeance is taking their return to the metal frontvery seriously, because also this new album ‘Soul Collector’ contains alot of material which is very worthwhile checking out.

That isn’t really the case yet with opening track ‘Cross In The Rain’,which in my opinion in the weakest track of the whole record, despitethe great, groovy guitar riff. It is the somewhat awkward chorus line,which causes the quality level to decrease a bit. The following, sleazy‘Wait Until The Sun Goes Down’ appeals much more to me and ischaracterized by a mighty fine groove. It reminds me somewhat of thebetter Guns ‘N’ Roses songs, but then sung by a vocalist that canactually sing!

The guitar parts of father and son Jan and Timo Somers are sparklingand singer Leon Goewie is singing like in his best days (maybe his bestdays are yet to come!). For me this is certainly one of the best songsof the album and a guarantee for a nice party in a live setting. Alsothe very swinging title tracks is quite convincing, especially due tothe again great base riff, which by the way reminds me quite a lot ofMegadeth. Of the other eight tracks presented here especially ‘Samurai’(hello ‘Arabia’!), the beautiful sung ‘What The Hell’, the magnificent‘I Never Felt That Way Before’ and the very groovy ‘So Many Times’ arestanding out, but I must immediately add that the rest of the materialis not too far behind in quality. That also accounts for thesemi-acoustic closing track ‘Lean On me’ after a few listens, withwhich I had some doubts the first time I heard it.

Vengeance once again proves with this ‘Soul Collector’ album to be oneof the very best bands from the Benelux area. With Highway Chile,Picture and Vengeance back where they belong to be, it looks like theeighties are returning. Sometimes life can really be beautiful…