Nick Workman: vocals, Tom Martin: guitars, James Martin: keyboards, Dan Chantrey: drums- the four of them together form the new AOR hard rock outfit VEGA.
All of these musicians have a career in rock already, having performed in many different rockbands.
Together they now try and get things running for their outfit Vega. From start to finish Kiss Of Life is a Hard Rock album of high standard, which is what we could expect from guys with such extensive careers already.
Tom and James Martin are a great songwriting team, and they do know how to write a catchy tune, with catchy lyrics on top of them. Vega have been lucky enough to find Frontiers Records as their record company, as Frontiers have a name to uphold when you look at artist in the AOR genre. Many great artist can be found in the Frontiers catalogue.
Kiss Of Life is a collection of 12 very well crafted songs. Great performances, nothing new under the horizon though. The songs stick from the first note to the last. To my ears it's all too AOR. Too smooth if you will. I know there is a huge audience for this music. I have been listening to the album a couple of times now, and I can sincerely state that I have found no real weaknesses on the album, not a song that should have been left off, yet on the other hand there also isn't a song that is that outstanding I would call it significantly better than the others.
All you would want to hear on an AOR albums is present, and Vega seem have what it takes to become a great band. Keep an eye out for these guys. Look for a gig near you. Live, this all must sound so much better.
I had a fun time listening to this utterly great debut album. Great driving music.
Track listing:
01 Into The Wild
02 Kiss Of Life
03 One Of a Kind
04 Staring At The Sun
05 Too Young For Wings
06 A.N. Other
07 Headlights
08 Heart Of Glass
09 Stay with Me
10 Wonderland
11 Whatever It Takes
12 SOS