Vanadium
Game Over

After two beautiful and interesting albums, which gained much success, in 1984, Vanadium released the album "Game Over". The band, led by the phenomenal Pino Scotto, managed to sell 54,000 copies in Italy alone, continuing to produce music on par with their previous CDs, namely the surprising "Metal Rock" and the compelling "A Race With The Devil".

As you know, they are one of the first bands that, more than twenty-five years ago, played metal in Italy, alongside groups still active today like the Cappanera brothers' Strana Officina, the Priest-inspired Crying Steel, the wild Bulldozer, and the doomsters Dark Quarterer. In this album, one notices an even harder sound than "A Race With The Devil", showing itself in some cases to be quite raw and rough, like in the riffs of "Pretty Heartbreaker" or the title track, a greater presence of keyboards, and, last but not least, a very convincing performance by Pino Scotto, who demonstrates his vocal talents to everyone. The songwriting has improved, the sound the band presents is still focused on a hard rock-metal mold, typical of the eighties, and the eight songs maintain high standards. The opener "Streets Of Danger" is a classic of the band, which also gave the title to the legendary live recorded in France, endowed with pure energy and speed, with the magical vocal performance of Pino and the whole band, making this track a great success for Vanadium. The following track "I'm Leaving At Last" has good guitar riffs, supported by the good keyboard work and Pino's voice, creating a good piece where influences from Ratt or the very early Motley Crue can be heard.

"War Trains" is a beautiful ballad, in full eighties style, which I would define as the b-side of the equally fantastic "Easy Way To Love", which, thanks to Pino's great singing and excellent choruses, manages to unleash great emotions that cannot be described with words. Really a beautiful piece, which could rival some of Cinderella's or Poison's power ballads. The fourth track, "Too Young To Die", with its power and compact riffs, continues to keep the album at very high levels, as does the following "Pretty Heartbreaker". This track starts with a hard guitar riff, joined by Pino's wild performance, then flows into its defiant chorus reminiscent of Motley Crue, and the beautiful keyboard and guitar solos. The seventh song is the classic instrumental that Vanadium includes in their records, namely the famous "The Hunter", which with its guitar parts that remind me of early Maiden and airy keyboard parts, is one of the most beautiful instrumental pieces, together with "Russian Roulette" from "Metal Rock" and "Ridge Farm" from the subsequent "Born To Fight". "Don't Let Your Master" is a classic hit from the band, impeccably played by the band, which in this album shows itself to be in great shape, but above all more gritty and pumped than ever. "Game Over" concludes with a final bang, namely the powerful title track, endowed with raw riffs, excellent keyboard work, an airy chorus like "A Race With The Devil", and a disruptive performance by Pino, which excellently concludes this important album by Vanadium and the "old" Italian metal.

The band will continue in the following years to record incredible CDs, such as "Live On The Streets Of Danger", the glorious "Born To Fight", the AOR of "Seventheaven" and "Nel cuore Del Caos". WE ROCK!!!