Nobody in Bedfordshire’s IMPERIAL VIPERS has a proper name. Sounding like a gang in some kids’ comic the five-piece Rock & Roll band comprise of Ash on vocals, Corky on rhythm guitar, Wevs on lead guitar, Bim on bass guitar and Lofty on tub thumpers. He’s their fifth (!) drummer to date so I hope he’s taken out adequate life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection.
To celebrate signing a three album deal with Luton based Eminence Records, The Bash Street Kids..er sorry..IMPERIAL VIPERS are releasing their debut single ‘Kick A Hole’ on June 20th. The single and the full album have been produced by Stuart Epps who’s worked with such luminaries as Led Zep and Oasis.
‘Kick A Hole’ is a real liquidizer of a song, throwing in and mixing up an array of influences from Nirvana to MC5 to G ‘N’ R to Joan Jett. Whilst hardly revolutionary it sounds ‘real’ and shows much promise by virtue of the way they’ve managed to put all the component parts together from the source materials without showing any joins. ‘Living In My Veins’ is a different kind of song but still wears its influences loud and proud. This time its Paul Rodgers/Free meets RHCP and a bit of AC/DC.
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Hardly anything new but not actually perpetrating any crime IMPERIAL VIPERS may just have enough juice and energy to excite fans of The Darkness dissatisfied at that band’s lampooning but may also pick up interest from the “cooler” end of the spectrum currently occupied by the likes of The Glitterati.
Or they may just blow it all and turn into Def Leppard….a thought which has me worrying about Lofty’s welfare again.
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