Musical Appreciation
Vandenberg - Vandenberg (1982)
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Credits:
- Bert Heerink - Lead Vocals
- Adrian Vandenberg - Guitar/vocals
- Jos Zoomer - Drums/Vocals
- Dick Kemper - Bass/Vocals
- Produced/Engineered by Vandenberg/Stuart Epps
- Recorded at Jimmy Page's Sol Studios and mastered
at The Townhouse.
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Background
The debut album from the band Vandenberg was recorded in
a two week period in April of 1982. As the story goes, guitarist
Adrian Vandenberg decided to reform his old band Teaser,
after an audition for Thin Lizzy didn't work out —
due to the Dutchman's lack of partying
stamina, or so legend has it. The new version of Vandenberg's
band consisted of Adrian, ex Mother
of Pearl drummer Jos Zoomer, vocalist Bert Heerink, and Bassist
Dick Kemper from another Dutch group called Turbo. Prior
to
recording the album, the band adopted the surname
of their main man, and the band was
called
Vandenberg. Hey, it worked for some other Dutchmen named
Van Halen, so it was worth a shot.
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Pass the Dutchie!
L-R: Zoomer, Kemper, Vandenberg, Heerink. |
On the strength of demos promoted by respected Dutch rock
journalist/manager Kees Baars, that the band was spotted
and
signed to Atlantic Records, by Phil Carson. So armed with
his trusty tiger striped Les Paul Heritage, his leopard
print
jacket, a 1960 Les Paul standard, and his modified Marshall
amplifiers, Adrian and the band went to Jimmy
Page's
Sol studios to record their debut album. Adrian wrote all
of the songs, designed the artwork, the logo,
the album covers, and the photographic layouts. His previous
career as a professional graphic designer finally came in
handy!
In October of 1982 the album was released. Vandenberg
was a superb effort — easily one of the best albums
of that year, and one of the best debut albums
of
the period. The album serves up a skilful blend of the fast-paced,
heavy metal rockers infused with the more catchy aspects
of
euro-pop/rock, along with a few tracks that explore a more
melodic and sometimes acoustic side. The also song featured
the hit single, Burning Heart — one of the era's
first power ballads, and still one of its best. The album
really doesn't have a weak track. If you're a classic metal
fan from a decade when rock still rocked, Vandenberg
should be right up your alley. So without any further ado,
lets appreciate Vandenberg.
Track By Track (vocal cues in parentheses)
Your Love Is In Vain (4:15) BANG! Your are hit straight
away with some meaty distorted chords then into a great
bluesy
and rather sexual groove, Adrian plays a short intro, to
bring us in the verse (You've been hanging on the phone
. . .)
and that big groove established at the start of the song
is just carrying
it forward, Dick and Jos are locked in it. Adrian adds fills
around the vocal, a couple of single notes taps, (change
your ways!) A clever little open string to octave position
pull off and trill (Oh no no . . .) And a cheeky,
wolf whistle type slide (answer the phone). In
the chorus its back to the chordal driven riff based
around ideas established
at the intro. Behind the riff in the chorus you can hear
some staccato picked unison bends, adding an extra melody
to the
chorus. Good examples of Adrian's tasty vibrato are all over
this track. The guitar solo on this song remains my favorite
by Adrian to this
day,
it
is
class
and a half,
cascading,
flowing
legato lines with a superb melodic feel, topped off with
some wide, expressive vibrato. This epitomizes the excellent
taste
of Vandenberg the soloist.
Back On My Feet (3.55) After the count in, in Dutch,
Adrian brings the song in with a heavy, syncopated muted
riff
which goes straight into a motif built around wide vibratoed
bends. Throughout the song Adrian uses his signature muting
style to break up the riff and he adds muted runs, and stab
chords. The earlier intro motif is re-used, and he adds
some
bent neck vibrato harmonics. Live he used to lean on his
Les Paul for this effect! The chorus (Now I'm back on
my feet again . . .)
is driven by strong, Powell-esque double bass drum work from
Jos Zoomer. Adrian provides a nice tight solo combining
his muted
style with
some quirky
phrases, nice fast blues inspired runs, syncopated flurries
and wide unison bends. He continues to the play out at the
end of the track.
Wait (5:11) Holy classical guitar cadenza Batman!
Yes, Robin that's Adrian Vandenberg. And he lets rip with
one almighty burn up the fret board on a classical guitar.
I remember a reviewer from Guitar Player magazine being
more
impressed by this rapid fire classical intro, featuring scalar
runs, pull offs, and arpeggios than he was of all the other
albums he reviewed that month. Spanish who? No competition,
it is that good. The electric guitar kicks off a slow, heavy, tension
building riff. Dynamically, the song contrasts loud and
quiet parts to
great effect. The catchy (Wait, wait, wait 'till the
shit hits the fan) creates a fist pumping chorus. The
song is a gem and features a great solo as well, with Adrian
playing
over the changes and adding two handed tapped phrases lower
down in the mix.
Burning Heart (4:11) I feel that the term power
ballad does this song such an injustice. It is one, but
to me it's more than that. Adrian's
compositional
skills really shine on this song. He uses a beautifully
simple, yet highly effective acoustic guitar part throughout
the verse. This part is based around arpeggiated ideas
derived from A minor seventh. At the end of some verses,
Adrian
adds
strummed harmonics across the 12th, 7th and 5th frets. The
electric guitar comes in for the chorus with a big power
chord fest, and the whole band is laying
into it.
| Vandenberg in full
flight. |
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The interlude into the solo features layered lines of arpeggios
and plucked double stops, which you can hear in various
tracks
of the mix. The solo is a master class in
taste. It starts with laid back, muted, classically inspired
lines
that continually
build. Clever use of hammer-ons, allow Adrian to link the
various phrases. The solos climaxes with flowing, relaxed
legato lines and some sweet singing bends at the top of the
neck. Yeah, baby. Got a cigarette? Also noteworthy in this
solo, Adrian's cocked wah pedal produces a kazoo like lead
tone that is present all over this album. Bert Heerink may
not
have been the best singer in the world, but he turns in a
sterling performance here, conveying pure, heartfelt emotion.
This song was the million plus seller that made Vandenberg
a one-hit wonder. However, it still sounds great today,
and
it is a metal classic.
Ready For You (3:57) A volume faded in, evil sounding
trill and we are off into a fast paced metal tune. The song
features an open string pedal tone that drives the song along
with some superb
drum work from Jos and a rather pounding bass line from Dick.
The band have got their head down a bit for this one (there
gonna rock this place tonight). Adrian unleashes some
nasty sounding low string pre bends and ghost bends in the
solo. You can also hear his trademark muted passages and
some fast Page-like phrases based around A minor at
the top of the
neck.
Too Late (4:12) The band still have their heads
down for this one. Too Late seems to continue the
attitude and ideas established in Ready For You.
It's
about the band playing live, with everyone giving
it
their all. This song features classic metal rhythmic
device: The gallop. The riff also has a slight
shuffle feel
to
it, especially at the beginning. Again Jos and Dick are
powering this track along. Adrian's solo begins with an
arpeggiated classically inspired progression, followed
by some quirky phrasings, and some call
and response
passages. He
finishes with some screaming bends. The cocked
wah kazooo tone gets some more play here.
Nothing To Lose (3:23) A short classical guitar intro
brings this rocker in, this song always reminds me exactly
why Phil Lynott asked Adrian to audition for Thin Lizzy.
This song is very much a rocker in the Lizzy mold. The
is mid-tempo number features
some nice simple riffs around the
vocal. It's not too cluttered. Everyone plays for the
song, then we are
get a note with very wide vibrato, and it's onto some
lyrical phrases, and back out to the finish. Classic
Vandenberg
ROCK!
Lost In A City (3:58) A wicked drum groove form
Jos brings in a muted riff from Adrian that works
into
a Zeppelin-like single note riff. He accents the riff with
harmonics. Bert
sings about
the slightly darker elements of life, when lost in a big
city. So the tension builds in the song till Bert is (Losing
my senses) and an atmospheric breakdown of plucked
harmonics and finger picked passages lead into driving
chords that set
up the solo and Adrian comes blasting out of the starting
gate, fast scalar alternate picked climbs, low muted runs,
wide vibrato throughout, finishing off with a rapid fire
arpeggio sequence that always reminds me of the similar
sequence in
the second solo to Dire Straits Sultans of Swing but
in this case with Adrian burning away it's more Sultans of
Supersonic Speed!
Out In The Streets (4:07) Some quick double bass
drum work brings in crashing very Townshend-esque chords,
then launches into an up tempo metal rocker. Adrian
lays down a quick pedal tone riff, the vocals enter accompanied
by a pick scrape. Adrian sounds like he is using a
lot
of bent neck vibrato on this song. The double bass drum pattern
and the guitar riff really drives this song — particularly
the choruses (Can't afford the hotel) and (Haven't
got the bread). Adrian gives us a bit of everything
on this solo. The kazoo tone, some low note
pre bends
and ghost bends, his typical quirky phrasing, followed by
some rapid alternate picked layovers, legato lines, and
classically inspired
ascending and descending
runs that resolve in a call and response manner.
Then crash goes
the
gong and Vandenberg the album is all done.
Summary
At the time of this release, the future looked bright
for Vandenberg. They had a US hit with Burning
Heart,
but sadly,
neither the band nor the album received much exposure. In
retrospect, one could contend that having the hit single
may have been the worst thing that could have happened to
Vandenberg.
The hit
created the expectation — at least in the minds of
their record label — that
Vandenberg should churn out the kind of commercial, lite
metal that Dokken would later make famous. There were
some inerrant flaws in that notion: First, Vandenberg was
clearly a heavy band that had a fluke hit single on
an otherwise all-out rock album. How anyone could have viewed
them as pop rock hit-makers is beyond comprehension. Second,
in 1982 good, real, heavy metal
was still on the rise. Heavy bands were playing
for a metalhead audience. They hadn't
begun thinking about
commerciality,
or taming
down
the product yet. But it appears as if that was what was asked
of Vandenberg.
Attempts to capitalize
on the success of Burning Heart produced two overly
commercial follow-up albums: Heading for a Storm,
and the painfully lame Alibi. The timing was just
wrong. Fans of lite metal weren't listening yet. For example,
in 1985,
Alibi was competing with albums like Accept's Metal
Heart, Loudness'
Thunder in the East. Vandenberg's
debut album would have fit in nicely with those. But fans
of real metal heard Alibi and thought: what
the hell happened to Vandenberg?
When
these follow-up Vandenberg releases failed to gain any traction,
Adrian finally called it a day
and stepped
into the soap opera that
is Whitesnake.
However, when
I think of Adrian, it's always this first album that comes
to mind. Adrian's incredibly tasty guitar work will keep
this
album in my top five forever. And every time I hear it, it
reminds me what a great band Vandenberg was. Dick
was as solid a bass as you could ask for, Bert gave it
everything
he had and Jos is a top drummer. Many fans feel that Adrian
never again played as well as he did on this album. And
while
I personally like aspects his other releases too, I'd be
hard pressed to disagree with that notion. Throughout this
album,
Adrian's
delivers guitar the kind of top drawer guitar work that almost made
him famous. You want catchy riffs, driving metal, blisteringly
quick fret work — it's all here. But what this album
has that his others lack is top quality songs from beginning
to end. That's why this album is as good to day as it was
in 1982. Rock on.
Related / Also Recommended:
Vandenberg
- Heading for a Storm - V V V
- Alibi - V V v
Manic Eden
Profile by Andrew G. Biggs. Copyright Dinosaur Rock Guitar ©2006
All rights reserved.
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