Did Father Christmas drop off a limited edition of Last In Line’s silver 12” EP with you last month? Nah, me neither, but I had checked out their heavy psychedelic rendition of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper classic so I did wonder what the other tracks were like and fortunately, because we now live in a digital world, I’ve just been able to check it out.
The rendition of ‘A Day In The Life’ is pretty awesome, and that’s from someone who tends to run a mile from such euphemisms. It’s one of The Beatles true masterpieces, and you’d expect anyone foolhardy enough to do a rendition of it is going to have us smile politely at best. Rather, it resonates deeply, the four-piece shorn of George Martin’s extraordinary strings and piano, bear down and play it with bare earnest skill: Vivian Campbell’s guitar soaring wide, then pinning down and going neo-classical, all the time offering a hefty wall of sound, Phil Soussan’s bass portents imminent menace, and Vivian Campbell rolls round his drumkit like the percussive section of an orchestra performing Wagner… And yet, there’s not a second of doom and gloom present, rather we’re compelled to be drawn in. As for vocalist Andrew Freeman he crafts this journalistic narration with emotion, then half way through is reborn it’s like a young Paul McCartney takes over; his screams imbued with the almighty power that was Little Richard.
To add to, at least in my opinion, what is one of the most perfectly crafted songs ever is some achievement. As for the other tracks, ‘Hurricane Orlagh’ channels Deep Purple and maybe a little bit of Styx in the vocal harmonies, while two other tracks are live numbers.
From 2016’s Heavy Crown album and 2019’s II we get ‘Devil In Me’ and ‘Give Up The Ghost’. On these we are reminded that the band was put together following Ronnie James Dio’s death, by the original members of Dio, the band, in Appice, Campbell, and Jimmy Bain who would subsequently pass away. The music is that classic rock sound you’d expect, ‘Ghost’ being a little more Sabbath-y
Just as I was about sign off, I find the band has a new full-length album due out at the end of March to be titled Jericho, and there’s already a single out going by the handle of ‘Ghost Town’. Pleasant surprises all round.
- Reviewed by Paul H Birch.
- A Day In The Life is released via earMUSIC and is available now (from here).
- Last In Line @ Vinny Appice
Track list:
- A Day In The Life
- Hurricane Orlagh
- Devil In Me (Live)
- Give Up The Ghost (Live)
