Stephen
The announcement of Ted Poley's return to the Danger Danger camp in 2004 is an exciting news to the melodic rock community as fans can expect a new album coming out, but couple of years waiting, there's still no sign of it until a pleasant surprise came out in 2008, the release of the duo Marcello/Vestry which was produced by Bruno Ravel.
This eponymous debut is like an alter-ego of Danger Danger as most of the music was based on their style and Bruno Ravel himself provided his bass plays as well. Rob Marcello's guitarplay is more explorative here and his fingers seemed freely running through his guitar neck without any limitation, unleashing some monster solos and making this album a guitar-oriented hard rock similar to early Firehouse and White Lion. Frank Vestry's vocal is enchanting, coincidentally sounded like a cross between Ted Poley and Paul Laine, and fits the music pretty well.
Strong tracks here are the opening "Fireworks", the midtempo superb track with catchy chorus of "Gone", the unusual jazzy-verse which burst out to a heavenly chorus of "Without You", the spirit-lifting happy vibe uptempo of "Live Life", the passionate ballad of "What You Mean", and the best track of the album, "One More Night", that’s going to blow your roof to the sky with its explosive chorus. The production level is excellent, the singer is very good, the guitars are mindblowing, and ten tracks even felt quite a short trip. This one is a marvelous masterpiece and even the later Danger Danger's album, "Revolve", can't topped this one. One of the greatest melodic rock albums of 2008!