Midnight Vice – S/T Review

Hearing for “Midnight Vice” an unsung band immediately comes to my mind; Damien Thorne with their 1986’s debut album “The Sign of the Jackal,” which is aesthetically very similar to what I am listening. It is not only Tyler Gray’s vocals, but also the instrumental approach that leads them towards this hidden gem of the good old times of Old School Heavy Metal. Giing it a thought it occours to me that many might think when comparing a new band with an old one I am doing a disservice to the new one, but, from where I am standing, it is the other way around. At doing this I bring the attention to a band already known and my dear children of the night can have an idea of the music the new band is making. I guess it works pretty fine. Well, to many my review can also be a disservice to the band…

That said, let’s go to Midnight Vice and their sef-tittled album “Midnight Vice,” shall we?

Immeadiately Tyler Gray’s voice stands out from the crowd with album opener “Strike in the Night” which, as I said, resembles a lot to Damien Thorne‘s Justin Fate’s. By quirk of circumstance, the impression I got now was the same I had more than thirty years ago. The music in “Midnight Vice” is really impressive due to this unique characteristic plus the American Old School Power Metal represented by bands as Metal Church, Savatage, from whom they got to cover “White Witch,” and, of course, Damien Thorne. Vocals here give the contrast with the hard punching of the drums and the fast guitar riffs functioning as a break to the wall of sound made by the instrumentals. The vocal high pitches help a lot breaking this idea brought by “Excalibur,” for instance. Pay attention how hard the drums beat and how fast and homogeneous the guitar riffs are while they contrast with the high pitches vocals give. The same happens with “Baptized by Fire” with a more standard riffing and middle tempo drumming. The ranges Tyler Gray’s vocals reach make all the difference here. This track gave me a Skid Row taste.

And so goes “Midnight Vice” as an EP which honors the good old times of Old School Heavy Metal inspired by an unsung band. The thing is by doing this Midnight Vice built their own reputation bringing back a kind of Metal music many unfortunately had forgotten. By the way, my digital pack was luckly stricken with the cover of Savatage’s “White Witch.”

P.S.: Interestingly, “Midnight Vice” was originally digitally released in 2023 and is now phisically released by ROAR Records.

Midnight Vice “S/T” will be released on April 04th via ROAR Records.

Track Listing:

1. Strike in the Night
2. Spell Caster
3. Excalibur
4. Baptized by Fire
5. Mysteria
6. Deliverance of Steel

7. White Witch

Watch “Baptized by Fire” official music video here: