Release:

High Roller Records
06.05.2016
Distribution: Soulfood

Info:

With Shaun Vanek (guitar, drums, bass) and Steve Dukuslow (drums) Vandallus from Cleveland in Ohio do indeed feature two thirds of the mighty MIDNIGHT in their line-up. The three-piece is completed by Jason Vanek (vocals, guitar). Although the band is Jason’s baby, MIDNIGHT boss Jamie Walters also wrote a few songs for VANDALLUS, who will release their debut album »On The High Side« via High Roller Records.

“VANDALLUS is a totally different project from Midnight,” states Jason Vanek, “basically the idea came about of making an album in the vein of late 1970s/early 1980s hard rock. I've always wanted to do a project like this, so it came together very quickly. Jamie and myself had some songs and I wanted to put a full album together.”

This full album, containing nine high-engery hard rock anthems, is called »On The High Side«. If you take a song like “Break The Storm”, which comes across like a mixture of very early Dokken (first album) and mid-period Scorpions, you do wonder if those two acts were indeed an influence on the sound of VANDALLUS? “Absolutely, that's what we were going for, they've always been influences of mine,” agrees Jason.

In the eighties, VANDALLUS’ music would probably have been described as “heavy rock”, with a little dose of AOR (think Canadian band Trimph) and maybe even a bit of hair metal thrown in for good measure (Warrior US). “I love Triumph,” beams Jason, “not as much of a hair metal thing was planned though, I'm personally not a huge hair metal fan. We just wanted to write great hard rock songs!”

And this is exactly what VANDALLUS achieved. These guys do mean business.

Tracklist:

1. Rat
2. Break The Storm
3. On The High Side
4. Who's Chasing Me
5. Running Lost
6. Back To The Grind
7. Get Out
8. On Top Of The World
9. A Fool You're Right

Line-up:

Jason Vanek - vocals, guitar
Shaun Vanek - guitar, drums, bass
Steve Dukuslow - drums