Megasonic-Intense

Mausoleum Records
2014

Megasonic is a Belgian-based trio whose influences include the likes of Van Halen, Ozzy, Aerosmith, Saxon, Savatage, Whitesnake, Metallica, UFO, Iron Maiden, BLS and Alter Bridge. Add that all together and you end up with a band that is part classic hard rock and melodic heavy metal with a few symphonic rock and progressive metal flourishes. The band, which is made up of lead vocalist/keyboardist/drummer Dimitri Verhoeven, guitarist/keyboardist Jeroen De Bock and guitarist/bassist Lieven De Wolf, is only a few years old from the looks of it with the thirteen track "Intense" serving as their debut outing. With eleven original compositions and two covers (Paul Gilbert´s "Down to Mexico" and ABBA´s "Does Your Mother Know") "Intense" is a solid (if unspectacular) release. There are some inspired moments such as "Demon's  Lust", "Witches  Brew" and "Future Shock" (three tracks which incidentally run one right after another with "Future Shock" the best of the three) as well as "Eye Of The Storm" and  "Run  For  Cover". But then you've got a real clunker like "Man  In  The  Moon" (a tiring ballad which is just lame) and other numbers that are merely so-so ("Bombs Away", which comes across as part Van Halen and part Riot is so close to being good that's it's discouraging!). The two covers end the album with "Down to Mexico" likely chosen to pull in guitar rock fans and ABBA´s "Does Your Mother Know" serving as more of a novelty then anything else. For Megasonic an album like "Intense" is a good starting point as it does feature some highlights ("Future Shock", which arguably is the heaviest number here, is a nice little banger all it's own!) and it paints the picture of a band with much more to offer if given time.