Vypera | Eat Your Heart Out

August 28, 2022 Publisher Music Reviews Comments Off

by Justin Gaines
— Sr. Journalist —

While it may seem that the Frontiers label is more of a factory these days, cranking out an endless series of mostly-forgettable collaboration projects, they do manage to discover a truly remarkable new artist from time to time and bring them to a wider audience. Think Creye, or Magic Dance. Their latest discovery is a new band from Sweden called Vypera, who just released their debut album, titled Eat Your Heart Out.

Now, you may have just read “new Frontiers band” and “Sweden” and went immediately to “Crashdiet/Crazy Lixx clone.” Vypera is definitely not that. They are similarly melodic, highly polished and retro hard rock minded, but Vypera has their sights set on a different kind of ‘80s rock. Instead of chasing that Motley Crue and Def Leppard sound, Vypera’s influences are the more metallic bands like Icon, King Kobra, Shy, Fifth Angel, Lion, Kick Axe and Leatherwolf. It’s a sound that very few new bands seem to chase, and fewer still do so well. Vyper nails it, capturing the sound and the sheer energy (and yes, a measure of cheesiness) of that era. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear this was a lost 1987 release.

Vypera doesn’t change things up much on Eat Your Heart Out. The obligatory ballad (“Fantasy”) aside, this album is song after song chock-full of razor-sharp riffs and huge shout-along choruses. And in true ‘80s fashion every one of those choruses is about living fast and/or on the edge, going for the kill, and running in the night. Hey, if you want lyrical depth, go listen to the new Porcupine Tree album. If you want to rock out to the 2022 equivalent of the Transformers soundtrack, this is where the action’s at. They’ve got a fantastic singer in Andreas Wallstrom, and despite a huge guitar sound just a single (excellent) guitarist in Christoffer Thelin, and the album is produced by Cederick “Ced” Forsburg, who as the mastermind behind Blazon Stone and Rocka Rollas is already a pro at capturing that classic metal atmosphere.

Horns up to Frontiers for bringing this very talented and exciting band to our attention. At this point Eat Your Heart Out is arguably the label’s best release this year. If you like old school Hard Rock with a Metal edge, you need Vypera in your life. If you still need convincing, it shouldn’t take much more than 30 second or so of Headbangers Ball-ready rockers like “Standing On The Edge,” “Danger” or “Cold As Ice” to make you a believer.

Genre: Hard Rock

Band:
Andreas Wallstrom (v)
Christoffer Thelin (g)
Andreas Andersson (b)
Johan Pettersson (d)