VERTICAL HAIR FACTORY - "Afterlife"

Hard rock with profound 70s influences, early UFO, URIAH HEEP, DEEP PURPLE and some FM touches. From the opening track, "Wasted years" AFTERLIFE are here to rock with groove and some "Stormbringer" spirit raising te temperature.Vertical Hair Factory is Tuple Salmela (vocals), Timo Tex Turpeinen (guitar), Mika Laine (guitar), Ilpo Kuhlman (bass), and Hannu Nenonen (drums). Tex composed the music and Ilpo was in charge of the lyrics.What strikes immediately is Salmela s voice, that has the same metal as Graham Bonnets, one of the most unique and in my opinion underrated vocalist in hard rock. When melody takes the reins in the same title song, the vocal melodic lines drive the song with clarity , giving a small Hard rock diamond.

These Finnish guys have studied their lesson well. "On the run" has all the elements that made UFO,MSG great. Melody, great guitar work, harmonies and some elegant but spot on added keyboards. They know how to write epic, melodic heavy rock songs like "Love,hurt,anger,joy", with the harmonies, leading the song. Where they still need work is when they try more up tempo/heavy rock approaches as in "Better man". For those of you who love Heavy hard rock with melodies, in the vein of UFO,MSG, ALCATRAZZ with a touch of Scandinavian air, "Afterlife " is a great addition to your music collection and VERTICAL HAIR FACTORY a band to have your eyes on.

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