Tuesday, January 11th, 2011 at 3:30pm by Leyla Ford
Vicious Rumors Razorback Killers
Label – SPV/Steamhammer
Release Date – April 5, 2011
Sometimes, I judge bands by their names. To be perfectly honest, I always judge bands by their names. Which is why I had successfully avoided ever listening to Bullet for My Valentine. But then they had to go and open for Maiden. So — I first stumbled across Vicious Rumors because I saw their name somewhere and was intrigued. I thought they were hair metal.
MS commenter “Sat,” also of HeavyStreet.com, has been requesting an MS interview with former Winger/Dokken/Whitesnake/Night Ranger shredder Reb Beach forever. Though today is not that day — and Hair Metal Week at MS is likely not that week — perhaps we’ll get to a Reb Beach interview some day. I honestly wouldn’t even know who to contact about that, but I’ll bet he’d be game; how many interview requests do you think Reb Beach gets?
I see why Sat wants a candid look into Beach’s mind, though; dude is a bonafide virtuoso that isn’t just about shredding for the sake of shredding. It’s obvious that the guy’s got a great sense of song structure and melody and has a great idea of what makes shred interesting instead of just a series of notes played in rapid succession. To classify him simply as a “shredder” would also be a gross mis-categorization… dude’s just a fantastic player through and through; he uses nifty chord voicings, has a great sense of melody (as previously mentioned) and has a bluesy tint to his playing.
