D'ERCOLE - Made To Burn

Rating: RR
Label: Rock Company 2018
Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom

Two sides of the coin? There's at the least three sides to the overall sound of "Made To Burn" by D'Ercole. First you have the fun guitar rocking numbers such as the opening track of "Time To Walk Away". It came out swinging like the Rabbids Invasion on a suicide mission to Mars (fun animated stuff at Nickelodeon and from France), but it's not really representable of the entire album. It reminded me of XYZ and Terry's work during this century. Secondly. The Pomp inspired keyboard number of "Out Of Time", easily the best track on here. It's got that late seventies, early eighties, sound going on at eleven and the same goes for the following acoustic vs. electric guitar track, "Open Your Eyes". The harmonies are really good throughout the first three tracks.

Thirdly. You have the really blunt and dare I say boring 'meat and potato' numbers such as "Feel The Burn", "Mistreated", "Get Undone", "Tragedy In Motion". They all have a rather annoying and darn right irritating guitar sound. Style-wise, they sound like mid-80's Gene Simmons compositions performed by mid-90s Dokken. Things are looking up again with the likes of "Same Old Story", "Slow Motion", and "Don't Know What You Got", however, it's not enough to save this platter from ending up in the sink, dish washer, at the very back of the cupboard.

D'Ercole is in fact the band of the D'Ercole brothers: guitarist Damian and drummer BF. That's what I thought at first anyhow considering the moniker. Lo and behold. In reality it's one of the many projects of U.S. artist/ vocalist Phil Vincent (Tragic, Chinawhite, Legion, etc.) and it feature guest musicians such as David Zychek (RIP), Paul Sabu (melodic hardrock cult legend) and Vince O’Regan. It's clearly not Vincent's best work up to date and the production differ a lot from track to track. Some are absolutely fine and others are muddy and thin. I'm neither too keen on the guitar sound and tone of Damian. Let's hope for something more uplifting on the next Phil Vincent album.