Reviews: Vision Of Disorder, Perfect Plan, Robin McAuley, Bronco (Rich Piva & Matt Bladen)

Vision Of Disorder - Vision Of Disorder/Imprint Deluxe (Dissonance Records/Cherry Red Records) [Rich Piva]

I believe I am uniquely qualified to review the re-release of the legendary Long Island hardcore/metalcore Vision Of Disorder’s re-release of their first two records, originally released on Roadrunner Records, on one CD set by the excellent Cherry Red Records. 

I have been a fan of the band since the beginning, and when I say beginning, I really mean it. I went to high school with two of the members of the band. 

I distinctly remember being chased around gym class by guitarist Mike Kennedy, briefly dated lead signer Tim Williams’s cousin, and may have, at one point, been attempted to be recruited into Tim’s fraternity by him (he was not always Mr. Hardcore frontman, and yes, for some reason, we had fraternities at my high school).

I experienced the band at talent shows and battle of the bands, before they were hardcore and were more straight ahead hard rock but with some leanings in that direction, crushing bands playing Pearl Jam songs and refusing to play covers, instead just giving the crowd their own material. 

Of course, in the late 80s/early 90s there was some amazing things happening in the Long Island and NYC hardcore scene (one of my most coveted 7-inch singes is Soldier Unknown by Mind Over Matter), so it was an obvious shift to the heavier stuff that got VOD noticed, ultimately becoming the most famous musicians from the school, outside of Debbie Gibson of course.

I am not going to sit here and go song by song on these two classics, all you have to do is listen to tracks like Element, Liberation, Suffer, and Through My Eyes on their 1996 debut to understand how influential these guys were in creating metalcore, like it or not. 

Williams’s hardcore growls partnered with the every now and then clean response will always be perfect to me. Kennedy remains an underrated metal guitar hero, chugging along and ripping it up on the twelve tracks on their debut. 

VOD was still hardcore as hell, even with their metal leanings, and as heavy as these songs are you could still hear elements of bands like Shelter in their hidden melodic side you may miss if you aren’t paying attention. 

Ask any band playing metalcore today and if the VOD debut isn’t one of their key influences, then they are either lying to you or their band sucks. You also can hear the influences they had on groove metal, with a track like Zone Zero as an example. The debut rules and can be heard in all sorts of metal and hardcore that is put out there through today.

Album two, 1998’s Imprint, was also great, but for me, didn’t quite live up to their debut, even though the record is excellent and also super influential. Imprint found the band drifting a bit away from their hardcore roots and is distinctively more metal to my ears, but also with great results. 

It made a lot of sense that the band was able to get Pantera Phil as a guest on the track By The River given songs like Twelve Steps To Nothing. There is something rawer to this record which I really dig, as there was no effort towards doing something more commercial at all. 

I do hear some elements of bands in the scene before them, like some of the underlying Life Of Agony vibes I get from a number of the tracks on Imprint. But these guys were not afraid to rip it up Dillinger Escape Plan style, like on Landslide, which is one of my favourite VOD songs of all time. 

Listen to Everytime I Die and tell me they don’t love Imprint. The CD set includes a Japanese bonus track from Imprint, a cool cover of the Bad Brains song Soul Craft, which is a nice additional to an already must have set.

If you are not aware of Vision Of Disorder, first, what’s wrong with you, second, this two CD set is the perfect introduction to what the band was all about, and two albums where VOD was at the peak of their powers and that reman super influential in what heavy music is all about today. 9/10

Perfect Plan - Heart Of A Lion (Frontiers Music Srl) [Matt Bladen]

Do Perfect Plan sound like an amalgamation of Survivor and Foreigner? Yes? Does it matter why they sound SO like both these bands? Not really as Heart Of A Lion is another album of epic AOR from Perfect Plan. 

Tracks such as Turn Up Your Radio and We Are Heroes having that upbeat sing along quality that reminds me of the movies where you see the cool protagonist cruising Santa Monica in an open top sports car.

This is rock n roll with a pop sheen to it. Modern production means that My Unsung Hero is a huge power ballad, with choir and some slow processed drums, if it was 1985 this would be number 1 for sure. 

The emotion in these songs comes from the soulful vocals of Kent Hilli, he's been the driving force of Perfect Plan for four albums now, he's also a member of Giant, further establishing his AOR credentials as a vocalist.

Perfect Plan deftly fuse many sounds of the 80's into one record on Heart Of A Lion, from the UK/US sounds of Whitesnake and Survivor to the Scandinavian sound they came from, if you want a record that does retro very well, a throwback to an era where rock ruled the airwaves. 8/10

Robin McAuley - Soulbound (Frontiers Music Srl) [Matt Bladen]

Robin McAuley is a bit of hard rock legend, he's sung in Grand Prix but is probably more closely associated with Michael Schenker Group more recently with Michael Schenker Fest and supergroup Black Swan. 

The return set the Frontiers Music Machine gears in motion and soon Soulbound was being written with production maestro Aldo Lonobile, giving it his trademark audio touch as well as some bass and additional guitar.

Yes guitar one thing there's a lot of guitar on this record. It's definitely on the rock side of the melodic rock spectrum. Andrea Seveso & Alessandro Mammola shredding like Metal Mickey from the beginning of 'Til I Die until the closing There Was A Man, they play complex riffs and leads that propel the heavy rocking style of this album. 

Alfonso Mocerino is the beat behind the title track and the swaggering Let It Go, the percussive heartbeat of these rock tracks while Antonio Agate adds the melodic keys.

Though of course the reason people will flock to this record is the unshakeable vocals of McAuley, the Irish singer still has a hell of set of pipes, he’s always reminded me of Klaus Meine of Scorpions and his gritty delivery is perfect for One Good Reason Why and Born To Die. 

Soulbound is a big rock record from a big rock voice. Robin McAuley is perhaps an unsung hero of the melodic rock sphere but on this record he shows his worth in buckets. 8/10

Bronco - Bronco (Magnetic Eye Records) [Rich Piva]

Bronco is a doomy sludge band from North Carolina and boy do they sound like it in all the best ways. These guys are heavy as hell on their self-titled debut, leaning into bands like Down, Crowbar, Eyehategod, and Weedeater to bring some southern sludginess to the masses.

A bluesy and groovy riff opens us up on Scourge Descent, you immediately know that you are in some Southern swamp, high as hell, stuck in a bog. The vocals may not jive with some listeners, as the singing leans more towards black metal than anything else. 

 But a black metal singer fronting Down would be my best way to describe this groovy slow burn. There is nothing in a rush on this record, take plodding second track Ride Eternal that exists to both get you high an destroy you simultaneously. 

My favourite track on the album is Light Of God, where the band rachets up the tempo and rips up the place with some chunky riffs. I never knew I needed a sludge cover of The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia but wow did I, and it also turns out to be the highlight of this record. 

There are no denying the riffs on Bronco, like the ones on Legion and Fades All. The vocals may be a tough hill to climb for some, but if you are into that style, this record will surely connect with you. If not, even the riffs won’t save you.

I have to be in the mood for this type of record, but when I am, the southern sludge of the debut from Bronco will scratch that itch. Heavy as hell, riff filled, but watch out for that voice for those of you with a delicate vocal pallet. 7/10