Space Vacation

Album Title: 
Cosmic Vanguard
Release Date: 
Friday, December 5, 2014
Distribution: 
Review Type: 

This band was a surprise to me.  I’d never heard of these Californians before, yet this is already their third album.  Of the band members the only name that rings a bell is that of Kiyoshi Morgan, who used to be the guitarist in Vicious Rumors.

But this is enough introduction I suppose.  What these guys bring us is pure heavy (USA) metal with a good dose of NWOBHM in it.  As a matter of fact, listening to this album brought back memories of days past, when Neat Records regularly released compilation albums with some known, and a whole lot of lesser or unknown obscure or less obscure bands.  I hear hints of Savage, but also of Iron Maiden and a lot of other bands.

While normally I’m not that into singers with high-pitched voices, this time what Scott Shapiro brings us, is very much to my liking.

Despite containing eleven tracks, the album sadly enough has only a playing time of just over 44 minutes, which is sad because I want more…  Since it seems their previous albums were in the same vein, I think I’m going to look on Amazon or so if I can still find a copy of those. To sum it up : these guys bring us nothing new, but what they bring us is very good.

94/100