Vonassi are an American trio from Boston (USA) consisting of Jeff Vaughn (drums, guitar, keyboards and backing vocals), Vince Buonassi (bass, guitars and keyboards) and Chaste Carter (vocals). They recorded their first EP-project as a musical experiment and an exploration of their writing talents. After that successful trial they recorded their debut album The Battle Of Ego. The sound of Vonassi is based upon a powerful and ambitious statement of progressive rock music: dynamic, bombastic, expressive vocal melodies and adventurous rhythmic changes. The Battle Of Ego contains twelve songs lasting between three and five minutes apart from the final track of eleven minutes. The Drudge is a powerful start with lots of varied guitar riffs and solos, while Gini is more of a ballad with some heavy eruptions and nice romantic lyrics. In Beginnings you can hear acoustic and electric guitar play and typical drumming in the vein of the unforgettable British new wave band The Police. Strong Arm Welfare is one of my favourites, because of its up-tempo and happy rhythms and the funny ‘sardonic’ lyrics. The ballad-like track Posing For The Cold is again acoustic; it’s a fine singer-songwriter tune followed by the title track The Battle Of Ego. This is a good rock song in the vein of German prog-rockers Ego with nice synth and bass guitar solos at the end, fluently followed by the pumping bass, varied drumming and electric guitar solos in Authenticity. Songs like Open Hand, In The Mirror, The Now Game and Field of View all have the same open structure, but these songs lack a musical surprise and even become a bit boring at the end. The final and modern rock song Coiled ends after seven minutes with four minutes of silence. The Battle Of Ego is an album without any high- or lowlights. All songs are well conceived and well played, but on the next release I would like to hear more variation. **+ Cor Smeets (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
