Reviewed by: Juha Harjula
Are you into bands like Hurricane, Rox Diamond, Y&T, Danger Danger and Big Bad Wolf? then Last Temptation will please your needs. Yes this is a sensational album that’s filled with huge arena AOR/Melodic Hardrock songs in the best style. This album was recorded back in 1989 and is now re-released.
Behind this brilliant band you will find singer Frank Vestry. Yes it’s the same man that released one of last years biggest surprises together with Danger Danger guitarist Rob Marcello called Marcello/Vestry. Together with the superb guitarist Arnie Miot Frank, they have written this album and they have come up with fantastic songs. As I said the songs sound huge with big hooklines with wonderful melodies and with catchy choruses. Frank sings outstanding with a Kelly Hansen (Hurricane, Foreigner) feel over his voice and they have managed to come up with awesome harmony vocals and the background vocals are stunning.
They open up the album with the best song of the album called Break It. This is a stunning rocker with fantastic hooks and the chorus is a winner with great keyboards in the background. Catch Me Now I’m Falling is a wonderful ballad that could have been huge back in the late 80s. This is a song with brilliant melodies and with an awesome chorus with great harmonies. Without Love is a hook laden rocker in the same style as Y&T meets Rox Diamond with strong riffs. Emotions bring House Of Lords to mind, great song. There are no fillers on this album and if you want your music to sound like it did in 1989 then Last Temptation will give you that. So don’t miss this fantastic album.
Reviewed by
Chris Lambert, Editor-in-Chief
LAST TEMPTATION
Better Late Than Never
© 2009 indie
melodic hard rock
studio album
10 tracks - TT 41:05
release date: September 4, 2009
We all remember Frank Vestry as the lead vocalist on last year’s splendid “Marcello-Vestry” album (# 10 in our yearly poll), but did you know that he also fronted a band called Last Temptation at the end of the 80s and in the early 90s? It was songwriter, producer and guitarist Arnie Miot, who founded the band and along with Frank Vestry (v) and Steve Hervatic (b), they quickly made a big buzz on the New York scene. Strange we didn’t hear from the band at the time, because their material sounds VERY impressive.
But to cut a (probably) long story short, the good news is that we can finally lay our hands on a proper re-issue of their debut album, “Better Late Than Never”, which was originally released in 1989. Says Vestry: “This is a record that we’ve all worked very hard on and that we think the melodic rock community will really like. I also think the Marcello fans will enjoy Arnie’s guitar style”. I can’t agree more with Frank: the songs can be described as stunning ‘classic’ melodic hard rock and his singing as well as Miot’s axework are fingerlickin’ good. As a matter of fact, it’s hard to believe that this band was only known in their own region. It must have been the changing of the musical climate that ‘killed’ them at the time. Anyway, ten tracks pass in review and all of them are of the highest quality, as is … the production (Miot). My only point of criticism is the weak cover artwork, but who cares … as long as we can listen to excellent tracks like opener “Break It”,”Catch Me Now I’m Falling”, “Without Love” and “Queen Of Ice”.
The band members felt that it was time to finally release this record the right way, and boy … am I glad they did! If there’s one ‘obscure’ album you should check out this year, it has to be this “Last Temptation”. A more than worthy addition for your collection and an absolute contender for my personal top-10 at the end of the year. Yes, it’s that good and you’d better believe it! (CL)
Click here for the Better Late Than Never Review by Glory Daze Music
Reviewed by Skid for Sleaze Roxx, November 2009.
After the successful release of Marcello/Vestry last year, which Sleaze Roxx readers voted one of the top CDs of 2008, what better time for vocalist Frank Vestry to resurrect his old band Last Temptation? This 'new' album contains tracks originally recorded back in 1989, and listening to Better Late Than Never raises the question, how did people miss out on this band back then? This CD contains everything that was popular in the late 80s - the big-hooks, strong melodies and memorable choruses. If one were to teach a college course on the sounds needed to achieve massive success during rock's late 80s domination, all they would have to do is present this album to the class. And twenty years later these songs still sound great, sure it's a step back in time, but doesn't sound dated at all.
What do I hear while listening to Better Late Than Never? I hear traces of bands such as Tesla, Tora Tora, Hurricane, Y&T, Saraya, Flame and many more - in other words a mixture of what made the hair revolution so great. The songs represented here fall on the heavier side of melodic rock, nothing more and nothing less. This is one of those discs in which you can play any track and find a winner, but the stand-outs for me are "Break It", the title-track, "Without Love", "Oh So Easy", "Save Me" and "Ice Queen". But like I said, you can't go wrong with any of the ten tracks here, they are all exceptional slabs of melodic hair metal. Better Late Than Never is an appropriate title, as this shouldn't have taken twenty years to properly release. You also can't help but wonder how successful Last Temptation would have been with the right push back in the day, because these guys had everything that made others multi-platinum success stories. As an added bonus, for a limited time the band will donate proceeds from sales through their website to the SCO Family Of Services...so buy it before the end of December.
Reivew by: Mark Balogh
LAST TEMPTATION’s “Better Late Than Never” is one of those lost albums that is just now seeing the light of day many years after it was created. The band is fronted by singer Frank Vestry of MARCELLO/VESTRY fame, of which their album was reviewed right here on www.rockeyez.com last year. Vestry and company recorded this gem back in 1991 and if this had been recorded just a couple years earlier than that it might have taken the hair scene by storm!
The record opens with “Break It” and its acoustic introduction that makes way for the killer vocals of Vestry before kicking into a WHITESNAKE meets KEEL meets DOKKEN rocker. It has all the emotion of the late 80’s and is dripping with that killer hair metal sound that we all know and love.
Title track “Last Temptation” brings a hard rock swagger along accompanied by some cool underlying keyboards (courtesy of Allan Gabay) and killer guitar work by Arnie Miot.
“Catch Me Now I’m Falling” is another smoldering rocker with top-notch musicianship and it surprising how competent the sound is on the record for what must have been little more than an indie release at the time it was recorded. I can easily envision with major label production this would be a near classic of the genre. “Without Love” brings that fun-time vibe from the hair days and with stabbing keyboards playing a big part it brings back the memory of great pomp acts like the classic WHITE SISTER or even a little bit of HOUSE OF LORDS.
Eddie Van Halen and Vito Bratta (depending on which coast you’re from!) have nothing on Arnie Miot as he opens “Oh So Easy” with his impressive fretwork. It leads into another fun-time rocker and even sounds a bit like TESLA at times, mainly thanks to Vestry’s throaty vocals.
The sound on “Emotions” seems to be missing the keyboard fills that made the previous tracks so full sounding. The keys are there but they seem to be more an afterthought than main part of the song. Sound-wise I’d compare the track to something you would have heard off the “Slip Of The Tongue” record from WHITESNAKE or maybe even a more raw sounding BONHAM.
Subsequent tracks like “Sailin’ Away (Northern Winds)”, “Save Me” and “Next To You” seem to have a more raw feel too, making the second half of the record seem as maybe it was recorded in a different session to the first half? The songs have the same vibe but just seem a shade below the first half of the record in terms of sound.
I was going to give “Better Late Than Never” a solid 4 stars based on the first half of the album but because of the slight dip in quality from the first half to the second I dropped it a half point to 3.5. Still it’s a solid 3.5 and if we had a more expanded rating system here at RockEyez it might have fallen somewhere in between. But maybe that’s nitpicking; bottom line is if you are a fan of the late 80’s hard rock/hair rock sound you should eat this one up.
This is another "new" release of hard rock that we have this year, highlighted the new in quotes because in fact these songs were originally recorded at 89, at the height of style. So far so good, but talvezs you've never heard of the band, but probably heard of this singer on this album, this is the Frank Vestry. Who knows the band Marcello / Vestry, who released an excellent debut album last year, you know who I mean.
With the success of the cd Marcello Vestry, now is the time of Frank Vestry relaunch the material of his previous band, and I can say it is a great band with a sound and 80s, melodic rock and most of the time, good production , choruses with trademark style and backing vocals doing its job well. With what looks like the band? With several hard rock bands of the 80s, like Whitesnake, Hurricane, Dokken, Tesla, House of Lords, among others. Be sure to check the opening track "Break It" with its acoustic beginning paras then catch the best melodic rock style, a band that could be in any album by Keel. The track "Catch Me Now I'm Falling" makes me think that if this band was not just an independent band, it would make a lot of success, the recipe for this track reminds me of Whitesnake, he had everything to chart in the 80.
Hard not to find highlights of the 10 tracks, they are all good and captivating as the beautiful and striking "Without Love", undoubtedly one of the best, with keypads typical of the season and refrain that leaves its mark. No doubt a great cd, that it is worthwhile to check and get through the band's website, run behind her.
Rating: 8.5/10
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