Vendetta - Heretic Nation

The opening notes of ‘Delusion’ are right out of the Judas Priest handbook and a section of the instrumental ‘Skaro’ owes much to Iron Maiden. Yes, Vendetta is British and pays homage to their forefathers throughout this sophomore effort.

Straight ahead meat & potatoes metal (competent, if unspectacular, twin lead classic stylings) with a singer is reminiscent of Martin Steene (Iron Fire/Force of Evil). ‘The Space Between’ could have come off the recent Lynch Mob disc ("Smoke And Mirrors", a cool CD), while a soulful, acoustic tinged (and dare I say Dokken-ish) ‘A Glass Half Empty’ and the tasteful licks opening the aforementioned ‘Skaro’ prove you don’t have to blaze away all the time. There’s plenty of that elsewhere (check out ‘My Revelation’ or ‘Age Of Annihilation’). A brief snippet of electro-modulated vox inhabits ‘Face Your Demons’, but none too long.

Decent stuff, especially for fans of this sound, something of a rarity on these shores.