March of the Kings

Vatican were a small band in Ohio that throughout the latter half of the eighties, chugged out a bunch of demos of fantastic heavy metal. Nobody would hear from them until a demo compilation was released a few years ago which basically included most of what they ever released. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the band weren’t done yet, and had a true full-length release ready to unleash. Now Vatican’s eighties material is a pretty tough act to follow, so naturally my expectations were lowered a good bit. But unless Vince Vatican had completely lost his chops altogether, I figured it might still be fun to listen to if for no other reason than his fiery fingerwork.

As it turns out, he hasn’t lost a thing. His playing abilities are as solid as ever on this album, and you can hear small but good doses of all the things that made his eighties stuff so great. I say small because even though I could find his signature tricks throughout the album, I could only find bits and pieces of these that were anywhere near as memorable as the old stuff. But he can still pull it off, especially the oddly-smooth-and-yet-somehow-jarring time and tempo changes he loves to use that keep you actively engaged the whole time.

But as much as I love this composition style, that isn’t the end of what’s good about this album. You also have the killer vocals of Brian McNasty whose over-the-top shrill screams are everything that heavy metal lovers expect in a solid traditional album. His voice easily has the range of any of the classic greats but with the added bonus of a severely penetrating falsetto. Combine that with Vince’s penchant for swift and severe time changes and sudden compositional shifts and you have something that sounds a bit like Mercyful Fate. Now, this is hardly a Fate worship band at all, but when taken together, those comparisons do result in a little but of that vibe.

But what went wrong here? It’s hard to say, because I can’t pinpoint any specific riff or solo and say that this-or-that is weak or uninspired. Rather, I can only say that this album is great fun to listen to but somehow the newer material fails to be as memorable as the classic era material. The thing is that it’s still good, but if you’re going to line it up next to the older stuff, I just don’t see how it could hold up. But if nothing else, check out that opening track, because even though it’s a re-recorded version of an old song, if it’s not a fantastic way to open an album, I don’t know what is.

Originally written for The Metal Observer.