Label: Mascot Records
Review by Martien Koolen
Three years ago Moonkings, aka Vandenberg's Moonkings released their debut album filled with bluesy hard rock tracks in the veins of Whitesnake, Vandenberg en Manic Eden. Now, Ad Vandenberg (guitars), Sem Christoffel (bass guitar), Mart Nijen Es (drums) and vocalist Jan Hoving bring out their follow up album simply called MK2. And guess what, it is another great hard rock album filled with 12 songs, featuring gripping melodies, no nonsense lyrics, excellent hooks and riffs, amazing vocals and lots of very addictive singalong choruses.
New Day and Hard Way have very "familiar" riffs and they even sound like the notorious well-known riffs from a certain hard rock band from down underÖ..Musically speaking the most interesting (best) songs are The Fire, featuring a ballad-like intro followed by a heavy, groovy Led Zeppelin-like melody and If You Can't Handle The Heat, a mid tempo rather heavy rocker. Both songs have great endings as The Fire ends with a spectacular "jam" between bass player Sem and drummer Mart, while the "master" himself ends the last song of the album with an astonishing guitar solo. Lyric wise most of the tracks are genuine rock and roll, no bullshit lyrics with the exception of the song What Doesn't Kill You, which deals with the contemporary madness that surrounds us nowadays.
There are really no fillers on this album, although Ready For The Taking reminds me perhaps too much of Creedence Clearwater Revival and Walk Away is maybe a bit too "poppy", but there is always something that you can nag about, right? No, I can truly say that Ad Vandenberg did it again; MK2 is a great hyper melodic hard rock album that will certainly end up in my top 10 list of 2017. Play it extremely loud, please!!!!
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