The great Dutch guitar hero
Adrian Vandenberg is back with a brand
new band! With some stunning albums with
'Vandenberg' in the 80's, the melodic
rock band had a international hit with
the powerful ballad ‘Burning Heart’.
Adrian solidified his status as one of
the most talented rock guitarists around
when he joined Coverdale in his
supergroup Whitesnake, co-writing many
of their hits; ‘The Deeper The Love’ and
‘Now You’re Gone’, and supplying the
magic guitar solo to ‘Here I Go Again’.
After leaving Whitesnake, Adrian
concentrated on his successful career as
an artist, exhibiting his paintings
in galleries all over Europe.
He was playing guitars in the same
sphere as string giants like:
Eddie Van Halen, Gary Moore, Randy
Rhoads, Slash, Steve Vai and Paul
Gilbert. I went bananas when I first
heard about this album through my
editor, because Adrian ruled the world
for several years in the 80's and
suddenly he was gone from the big stages
and went into another path in his life.
Music however was always prevalent on
his mind, so as soon as he had the
opportunity to work with some very
talented young musicians, he started
creating new rock n roll.
I'm very, very happy that he is back
again and I appreciates that he's
releasing this disc, which has big doses
of the groovy blues hard rock that
feels timeless. I get the feeling that he
has been working quite much on these
songs, because I can't find one filler
song in the tracklist. Jan Hoving on
vocals is a real powerhouse and he
sounds quite similar to the young
Coverdale. Groovy, heavy, classic hard
rock with stylish guitars and a ton of
the "snake" sound. Btw, David Coverdal is guest
singing on the closing ballad 'Sailing Ships'! It's
quite diverse style in the songs, but the blues mood
is always present and Jan's vocals is
just superb.
In some of the tracks he sings
similar to Ian Astbury (The Cult) and he
sings with a "wide open mouth" and gives
the lyrics their clout and pureness.
Just listen to the excellent ballad 'Out
of Reach'. Adrian doesn't put himself in
the first row on the album and I could
wish for more of his extraordinary
guitar playing in some of the songs. Sem
and Mart in the rhythm section is the
foundation in Moonking's sound and Adrian spices
it all up with some thrilling string magic. In
'Nothing Touches' it swings as if the Scott brothers
in AC/DC were playing. The
opening track 'Lust and Lies' is also a
killer track which grabs my spine and
shakes it around. 'Close to You', 'Good
Things' and 'Steal Away' are some of the
best songs and are three steaming blues
rock tracks.
Overall is this a rather mature rock
album to the fans of the blues based
rock n roll. At a consistently high quality level
the thirteen tracks, but without any super hits. A
promising debut that leaves me with a
feeling that I want more and this must give
Adrian the confidence to continue
writing music and invest more time in
this project. My thumbs are up!
Vandenberg's Moonkings:
Adrian Vandenberg - Guitar
Jan Hoving - Vocals
Sem Christoffel - Bass
Mart Nijen Es - Drums
