Fatal Vision – Once (Pride & Joy Music)

This ‘new’ album by the Canadian band Fatal Vision is something of a curiosity given that the group came together in the ’80s when AOR/Melodic rock/hair metal was in its prime with bands like Journey, Asia, Foreigner and Europe ruling the airwaves.

It was a love of all things AOR that brought together the similar minded musicians Simon Marwood, Chris Hirsekorn and Howie Manderson. Songs were written but plans changed and everything fell apart until 2019 when Marwood had the opportunity to record in a local studio which had him frantically searching for the old material and once permission was granted by the other original band members he brought in a new team to bring the songs to life. The musicians involved were Andrew Burns (bass), Juan Miguel Gomez Montant (guitar), Scottie Irving (keyboards) and Alex Wickham (drums) with Marwood supplying the vocals. To give the album real gravitas he then called in a quite outstanding list of guests including Lenny Castro (Toto), Alessandro Del Vecchio (Hardline, Sunstorm), Mark Holden (Boulevard), JK Northrup (King Kobra, XYZ), Marc Lafrance (Loverboy, Mötley Crüe), Paul Laine (Danger Danger, The Defiants) and Jeff Scott Soto (Journey, Talisman) which is enough to make any melodic rock fan’s mouth water! The music sounds like retro melodic rock from the ’70s and ’80s but then it is supposed to and there are elements of Boston, Journey, Survivor but, again, how could there not be? The music is smooth and super-slick with all the hooks and vocal harmonies that you would expect from AOR and yes, we’ve heard it all before but that’s the way melodic rock is supposed to sound so why change it? The songs excite and the delivery is perfect with great vocals from Marwood and some quite exceptional performances from a stellar team of musicians.

I’m not sure what is next for Fatal Vision but Once is an album that shows what could have been and the next step is to show what the band can offer for today and the future but I have no doubts about the ability of Marwood to pull it off successfully.