Vantage Point: Daredevil On The Shore

Having recently discovered Scottish traditional Metal act Vantage Point through their excellent High Maintenance Girlfriend EP and current album Demonic Dinner Dance, it would have been wrong of me not to delve back into this band's catalogue to brush up on my Vantage Point history.

Daredevil On The Shore arrived in 2008 and sets the VP stall out in rambunctious fashion, a high octane attack employed across 14 tracks which reveal a liking for Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Helloween. Singer Murray Graham keenly shows off an impressive range, his delivery clean and pure, his bass work rampaging in a Steve Harris, foot on the monitor kind of way, while guitarists Liam Kane and James Mitchell combine in scintillating fashion from beginning to end. Add in the solid and at times pleasantly flashy drumming from David Cumming and the scene is set for a convincing romp across long established British Metal plains.

As you might expect from a young band trying to find their own way in the big bad world of music, the production values on this album leave a little to be desired; the drums far too rumbling, Graham's voice a little too exposed. However it is to Vantage Point's credit that even at this embryonic stage in their development that the crash and burn of Saxon like "Motor Man" (natch) hits hard, the Maidenisms of "24 Hour Breakdown", which in structure reveals a penchant for the blues, resides long in the mind, while "Go To Hell" rips up a Sweet like rifferama, before the bass carries a gargantuan groove forward.

Yes, you could nitpick and point out the album's title track finds the vocal excursions from Graham a little too far off piste and naming any song "Gaydar", no matter its intentions, is brave (or foolish) and yet, one misplaced snare crack which slipped through quality control on "Out Of Control" is the only real glaring error.

Better things were to come from Vantage Point, however there's no denying that Daredevil On The Shore was a sound and solid first step from a band, even at this early stage, capable of writing engaging songs which prove infuriatingly difficult to shake from the mind.

Track Listing
1. Fire Island
2. Gaydar
3. Pleasure Slave
4. Motor Man
5. Gemma Gemini
6. Devil's Spawn
7. Go to Hell
8. Gripped by the Throat
9. Out of Control
10. 24 Hour Breakdown
11. Too Much Work
12. Sail on
13. Daredevil on the Shore

Added: November 1st 2014
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Vantage Point online
Hits: 1973
Language: english

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