Released by: Independent
Release Date: Out Now!!!
Genre: Melodic Rock/AOR
Links: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Counter-Void/707609999268848
Tracklist:
1. Ultimate Betrayal
2. Fool
3. Angel By My Side
4. For Nothin’
5. Never Know
6. I Can’t Take It
7. Shadow
8. Don’t Wake Me
9. Can’t Deny
10. Raspberry Super Nova
11. Blind Corner
Now this is more like it! As soon as the first song of the same titled debut CD of the band COUNTER VOID gets on it’s way and the vocals kick in, I am convinced that this is going to be an interesting adventure. For an independent release, this sounds damn good and that particular opener “Ultimate betrayal” is a highly sensational midtempo semi-progressive AOR/Melodic Rocker with phenomenal guitarwork and superb vocals, while the song itself is quite awesome and reminds me a bit of CITA meets MARA meets FAIR WARNING meets 1990s FORTUNE (the Boston band) and among the 11 tracks we can find a lot more sensational songs, such as “Fool”, “Raspberry super nova” (FANTASTIC!), “Blind corner” and the ENCHANTish “Don’t wake me”. The band comes out of a suburb of the city of Minneapolis and consists of 2 musicians, Ben Hafeman on Lead Vocals, backing vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, instrument programming and Brad Miller on Lead Guitar, backing vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, instrument programming. Although I hear a lot of new voices, usually I am not that impressed anymore, but here we have a singer who is without a doubt sounding like the greatest undiscovered AOR singer of the past decade!
BEN HAFEMAN is his name and if you listen to the song “Fool” you will understand that he is just amazing, with a range that will make any singer jealous. He is the kind of crystal clear sounding singer I personally dig a lot, reminding me of FREDDY CURCI (ALIAS, SHERIFF), BOB VOSE (FORTUNE), MARTY FARRIS (MARA), IAN PARRY and DANNY MARTINEZ (CITA), but let’s also not forget that BRAD MILLER is a brilliant shredding guitarist as well, who completes this duo’s rise to fame and fortune within the AOR/Melodic Rock/Prog world. The CD has recently been released and when the word comes out, this act will definitely get a lot of attention. The only pity is the lack of real drums, because drum programming is being used, so the drums should definitely be played for real next time, as now during a slightly off the grid kinda tune such as “Never know” it sounds a bit flat. Nevertheless, such talented as these 2 guys sound together is quite rare nowadays, so do not miss this and go check it out for yourself at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Counter-Void/707609999268848?ref=stream and in a few years this could turn out to something huge in the Prog/Melodic Rock world, mark my words!
Written by Gabor
Rating Gabor 8/10
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