VELVET THUNDER

It was only a few months ago that Kent Hilli released his debut solo album, The Rumble, on which the mellifluous voiced Swede showed just what a class act he is when it comes to sophisticated melodic rock.

Hilli, you may recall, is the singer with Master Plan which is a quite superb and superior AOR band with a style redolent of those amazing glossy ’70s and ’80s American bands such as Journey, Toto, Survivor etc. If you are a melodic rock fan then you really should check out Master Plan and also have a listen to Hilli’s The Rumble as it is a perfect example of smooth and slick AOR at its very best. Hilli produced the album in conjunction with fellow Swedish the multi-instrumentalist Michael Palace, a true musical genius and leader of his own band simply entitled Palace. Palace provided all instruments and backing vocals with Hilli supplying main and backing vocals and together they created a real work of art with The Rumble and it is as valid a melodic rock album as you will ever hear.

We now come to Vital 4 which is a new EP by the same team with Hilli providing new and perfect versions of four classic AOR songs from masters of the genre in Joe Lynn Turner, Michael Bolton, Signal and Europe. The songs were specially selected by Hilli as he considers them among the top 10 melodic rock/AOR songs from musicians in his favourite top 10 list of all time. It can be a brave choice to re-record songs that are already considered classics but Hilli has such a perfect voice that he immediately makes the songs his own and Michael Palace is a wonderful musician with his own stamp of authority and his work too is exemplary with his guitar work being out of this world.

Vital 4 is the perfect companion to The Rumble and shows two musicians in peak form and real masters of classic rock.