The enjoyable nature of the songs and performance of the band make for an entertaining listen.

Vice are a band from Germany who first appeared on the scene at the tail end of the eighties and released a couple of albums on BMG. They also toured all over Europe and with plenty of television exposure sold over a hundred thousand units. Personally, I've never heard any of their early work and only picked up on them recently when news of a new album broke.

The new album 'Veni Vidi Vice' was produced, recorded and mixed by Chris Limburg at Lictoc Studios in Munich and is their first release in twenty-seven years. It's been a long time since they left the scene so have they got anything worthwhile to offer today? If you like big sounding Melodic Hard Rock with massive riffs, catchy choruses and nifty solos you might find a lot to like here.

Vice in 2017 only retains Chris "Yps" Limburg (guitars) from the previous line-up and he is ably assisted by Mario "Mitch" Michel (vocals), Martin "El Bajo" Dreher (bass) and Pete "Pepsi" Lautenschlager (drums) who together have crafted an album that will most likely appeal to fans of Bonfire, Roko and Victory et al.

There are a few issues for me, the main one being the accented vocals of Michel reminding me of Udo Dirkschneider with a deeper and more melodic tone. Not my favourite type of singer and the lyrics are nothing challenging, but the enjoyable nature of the songs and performance of the band make for an entertaining listen.

Carl Noonan