Imperial Vipers - Promised Land (Eminence) Reviewed By Steve Rudd

Here's another homegrown UK rock band with its heart pumping hard in the realm of Classic Rock music, with this Limited Edition single release being almost overwhelmed by the monolithic guitar riff that's the perfect foil for the supersize vocals of band frontman Ash Simmons.

This single is available on 7" vinyl and from various download sites, taken as it is from their debut LP Kick A Hole. Already the quintet is making huge waves around the UK on the back of tours with the riotous Towers of London and uber-cool We Are Scientists, with these hard-rocking Imperial Vipers clearly loving their music to be dominated by mighty angular riffage and ripping vocals that are so full of passionate heart and soul it seems wholly plausible that, after every single song Ash sings in a live situation, frontman Simmons will have a very sore throat indeed.

This is no-holds-barred rock, injected with the brooding darkness of Megadeth's style. There are also exhilarating echoes of Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin in the headstrong mix for further eardrum-destroying measure, with the Vipers material having been produced by Stuart Epps - who has coincidentally worked with the Led lads, along with the likes of Bad Company. Imperial Vipers are hot news on Radio 1, where many of the enraptured DJs have been playing their songs to the nation.

The band is also relatively well known in France, given the fact that they've already headlined a festival in Paris in front of 10,000 people. Hell, if these lads can do that, they can surely do anything. The world is their oyster: the Promised Land indeed.

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