Vandenberg’s Moonkings – MKII

Former Whitesnake guitarist, Adrian Vandenberg formed Vandeberg’s Moonkings a few years ago, releasing their debut album four years ago. Now they’re back with their second album, the rather unimaginatively named “Mk II”. Thankfully the lack of effort coming up with a decent album title is the only area of the album where they haven’t excelled – they’ve put plenty of time into writing, recording and producing the album.

It’s one hell of a good album – great rock in the Whitesnake vein. For a band formed by a guitarist, I did wonder if they’d fall into the trap many guitarists seem to, which is to overdo the guitar to the extent it becomes a collection of solos help together with a few bits of song, but Adrian Vandenberg never falls into that trap – he’s a great songwriter, so this is an album of great rock songs which just happen to have some great guitar playing in them.

Check out the video for opening track “Tightrope” and you’ll get a good idea of what to expect from the album

It’s one of those great albums where you can listen to the album repeatedly and never feel the desire to skip a song. Most albums have at least one duff track that you tend to skip, but not this one. This is a great album from start to finish.

A great album.

Track listing:

1. Tightrope
2. Reputation
3. Angel in black
4. The fire
5. Walk away
6. All or nothing
7. What doesn’t kill you
8. Ready for the taking
9. New day
10. Hard way
11. Love runs out
12. If you can’t handle the heat