3 years has almost passed since their comeback album 'Back in the Ring' saw the light of day. Now they are back with 'Soul Collector'. The working title in the studio was 'Quarter Pounder' (because of their 25th anniversary), but they changed it in the end - some big firm might not be too happy with the title. Some songs have already been written some time ago, a lot of others have been written by guests.
Paul Sabu signs up for "Myspace Freak", in my opinion one of the worst and simplest songs on the album. Listening to "Samurai" you immediately hear that it is from the hands of Arjen Lucassen, a song in the style of Arabia. Alides Hidding helped to write "Lean on Me" and "What the Hell" and German Matt Sinner wrote "Soul Collector". I think Matt has listened a lot to Megadeth at the time, just listen to the guitar riff in the song. Because of the different songwriters,Vengeance made an album with a lot of variety in songs, but still recognizable as Vengeance. Good mid-tempo and kind of catchy rock songs with good vocals by Leon. The ballad "I Never Felt That Way Before" sounds like Van Halen and in the emotional song "Lean on Me" we hear Leon in top form.
Special about the song "So Many Times" is that the guitar solo is played by Timo Somers, the 16 year old son of Jan Somers (also guitar), Timo has recently become a permanent member. Vengeance has written a decent hard rock album, with which they prove there is still room for them and with which they can look at a bright future ahead again.
