Review: Vamps - Vamps

When Vamps released their first single "Love Addict", i really enjoyed that song and thought they were gonna be a great band. That was short lived as they released "I Gotta Kick Start Now", which failed to interest me at all, and the same for "Evanescent". If it weren't for the fantastic cover of "Life On Mars" as the B-side on "Evanescent" i wouldn't have bothered with this album at all.

Thank god i did.

I wasn't expecting to like this album at all but it has become one of my favourite albums to date, with the majority of the songs having a much heavier composition, reminiscent of some of Hyde's solo work, especially so in "Secret in my Heart", with the opening chords baring similarities to "Shining Over You", that and the grandeur of Hyde's vocals during the chorus.

The third track on the album (following the intro & then "Love Addict"), is "Cosmos", and its the fascinating guitar riff in this song that made me start to think "Actually, this isn't that bad at all". The overall song isn't massively interesting, but its no more to be expected from the third track on an album.

The next track is the previously mentioned "Secret in my Heart". This song made me certain that the rest of the album would be good, from the line "Don't say, the secret in my heart". Its alot heavier than their pre-released work, and also Hyde's vocals are alot less gritty than he's been doing previously in Vamps. I only wish that the opening line would've been part of the chorus as i don't feel the chorus in this song is as powerful as it should be.

I'll skip "Evanescent" and go straight to the 6th track, "Vampire Depression". Now i generally think you cant do a serious song when its about vampires. It all seems a bit silly to me, they're not real, and yes they are cool but they're still not real. It'd be the same as singing about unicorns. Anyway this song manages to destroy that prejudice against vampire songs, despite the use of more electronic techniques, the verse's and riff were pretty boring to me, the chorus on the other hand was excellent. I think its as close to Screamo Hyde's gone before, and its brilliant. the tempo on the instruments picks up alot, adding more, as Hyde begins shouting the chorus (it is singing but very shouty singing).

The next track, and last track i liked enough to mention, is "RedRum". the guitar is massively heavier in this song, sounding like something by Trivium, and for the chorus & part of the verses Hyde again uses that lovely shouty singing voice. The melody, like in so many of the other songs on the album, fails to impress, but with the strength of Hyde's vocals and the brilliant guitar, you can forget that.

Overall this album was very good, and alot better than i had expected. If they keep a heavy metal vibe like this for future releases I'm certainly going to stick with them.