Monday, July 28, 2014

VELOCITY - Impact 1997 / Activator 2001

VELOCITY - Impact 1997 / Activator 2001 Japan release
Requested in "REQUEST & FILL CORNER" section...

It was not easy to make Melodic Hard Rock in the USA during the second half of the '90s, but guitarist / vocalist David Victor (now in Tom Scholz's Boston) was one of the few carrying the flag with his band VELOCITY.

Their debut "Impact" truly does justice to its name, full of punchy melodic rockers and killer mid-tempo / ballads.
Victor is an awesome vocalist and arranger, Chris Dodge delivers some assasin six-string solos, while the kickin' drumming is provided by Pat Torpey (Mr. Big). There's not a single weak track on this record, very well produced with a crisp sound.
As curiosity, this should be one the albums with more distinct artwork versions in Rock history. Originally issued in the US in 1997, it was released in Europe, Japan and again in America in 1998, all with different covers.

VELOCITY - Impact 1997 / Activator 2001 US and European covers

This is a HQ rip from the Japanese press, but the artwork from all are included just for fun.
Additionally, there's VELOCITY's second effort from 2011, the EP "Activator", not melodic as the debut but still interesting, a little more modern sounding and heavy riff-oriented, where David Victor plays all the instruments.
Killer stuff.


Impact 1997
01 - You Don't Amaze Me Anymore
02 - Julia Ann
03 - Supernatural Lover
04 - She's Been Around
05 - Janine
06 - Riot Goin' On
07 - More Than Tonight
08 - Love Is Dangerous
09 - One Minute To Midnight
10 - Open Road

David Victor - lead & backing vocals, guitar, bass
Chris Dodge - lead guitar
Pat Torpey - drums


Activator 2001
VELOCITY Activator 2001

01 - Stay
02 - Beautiful and Useless
03 - Alive
04 - You
05 - Stranger

David Victor - vocals, all instruments





VELOCITY - Impact 1997 / Activator 2001
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2 Comments:

T.P said...

Thanks for this unexpected little MHR jewel by request - sounds catchy!

Bye for now,
Thomas

Jose Angel said...

Hi,

Congrats for your wonderful Blog!

Could it be possible to re-up the

"VELOCITY - Impact 1997/Activator 2001" post?

It would be very appreciated, thank you so much in advance!