VEGA – Who We Are
- Posted on 07-06-2016
"Who We Are" is the fourth studio album from UK melodic hard rock band Vega, striding valiantly into this record with a firm understanding of their 80’s influences and invigorating things through a slightly modern slant. "Every Little Monster" has that catchy vocal melody and proper guitar/keyboard sequence that reminds me of Loverboy meets "Hysteria" era Def Leppard, while the follow up "Nothing Is Forever" takes us to power ballad 101 school.
Vocalist Nick Workman has one of those voices tailor made for radio – Mike Reno, John Waite, and others of that ilk come to mind when hearing his upper register work in the mid-tempo "For Our Sins" or slightly cyber keyboard oriented "Ignite"- the proper amount of echoing background vocals pumping up the next chorus or verse. The guitar work that Tom Martin and Marcus Thurston share has that right AOR/ hard rock balance, while the lead breaks that pop up are energetic and connected to the main arrangements. You can’t help but smile to a lot of the uplifting chord progressions and melodies that Vega pump out on these 12 tracks – right out of the gate "Explode" has that Journey sheen between keyboards and guitars, while "Saving Grace" aids the cause through more of a straight forward 4/4 groove to allow Nick open space to hit all the key emotional bullet points during the chorus ‘are you the one who’s gonna save the day/ are you the one who needs to break away/ a saving grace’.
A proper follow up to the excellent "Stereo Messiah", Vega belongs in that conversation regarding the future of melodic hard rock and AOR – as the old guard retires and fades away, they’ll be more than happy to hoist the flag for the genre and keep things going just fine.