17 years old this year Voodoo Six have been through a good few line-up changes over the years and now sport their third vocalist. Since those early days only Tony Newton (Iron Maiden’s live sound man) and guitarist Matt Pearce remain and on ‘Simulation Game’ they prove that nothing is going to slow them down.
Over the years the band were highly touted, starting out as they did with Richie Faulkner on guitar (who left to join Judas Priest) alongside Pearce and Newton, they played Download 4 times in those early years, Sonisphere twice and supported Maiden in 2013. Classic Rock loved them, they put out some great albums in ‘Fluke?’ (2010) and ‘Songs To Invade Countries To’ (2013) but by then they’d lost a drummer and second vocalist.
By 2017’s ‘Make Way for the King’ they also lost guitarist Chris Jones leaving Matt Pearce to record the guitar parts. Now in the midst of the Covid outbreak comes album 5 or 6 depending on how you look at ‘Feed My Soul’ and ‘First Hit For Free’ it’s remixed re-release. ‘Simulation Game’ picks up where 2017’s ‘Make Way for the King’ threatened to but inexplicable didn’t and there has of course been another change with Tom Gentry (Gun) joining Pearce on guitars replacing Craig price who joined in 2017 .
Opening with the huge riff to ‘Traveller’ (which Matt just told me they opened up with for the first time last time they played) lays out the stall nicely. This time it’s harder darker and hookier and dare I say it ‘more Metal’. And whilst ‘Gone Forever’ adds a modern edge the catchword here is subtlety, a little more progressive, a little more metallic and a little more edgy. Saying that ‘Liar and a Thief’ is remarkably balanced, hugely catchy and just the sort of song that makes you realise already what a great catalogue of songs these guys have.
‘Inherit My Shadow’ starts with a slow and almost Folky guitar jangle punctuated by hard hitting drums before the riff kicks in and we fall back down to that gentle refrain. It’s hard, it’s heavy and it’s damned good too. Before you know it though we’re half way as ‘Last to Know’ gets kinda Proggy and interesting before ‘Lost’ simply flies! It could well be my current favourite here and it’s all what makes this band so comfortably familiar and yet so cunningly different.
The huge not really a ballad (well that’s what Matt said in our recent interview) that is ‘Never Beyond Repair’ certainty slows things down but as Matt says it’s one of those songs that’s not really a ‘lighters held aloft’ moment and it’s all the better for it, taking the convention and reshaping it. Like ‘Lost’ before it it feels like the real nucleus of this work.
‘Brake’ is another huge song with a Melodic Metal engine and some well-placed keys before it gets all introspective then bursts forth again. It will be interesting to see what they do with this live when the opportunity arises. And that leaves but two tracks left on a lean ten track album that has somehow managed to keep your attention from front to back like so few albums do these days. This is certainly no smattering of singles and a few buckets of filler, it’s a keeper.
And the final two tracks are the proof of that. ‘Control’ just hits you slap in the face with an instant hard and heavy sucker-punch, and closing track ‘One of Us’ starts out like a grand movie soundscape before pushing the pedal to the metal as we watch the landscape flying past. This is seriously good stuff with a wonderful stew of sounds and influences that in many hands would sound less than cohesive but in the hands of Voodoo Six sound fresh and enticing. ‘The Simulation Game’ is up there with the best this year.
8.5/10
