Vypera is a hard rock/heavy metal band from Sweden formed by lead singer Andreas Wallstrom, guitarist Christoffer Thelin, bass player Andreas Andersson, and drummer Johan Pettersson. The band have released two albums to date – ‘Eat Your Heart Out’ (2022) and ‘Race Of Time’ (2023).
Emerging from the hotbed of hard rock and heavy metal that is Sweden, Vypera made an energetic and highly bombastic entry into the world of rock and metal with last year’s ‘Eat Your Heart Out’ proving conclusively that a meld of rock and metal music is a match made in heaven! And just a year later, the band are back to batter listeners, fans and followers with eleven more hard-hitting fist in the air anthems.
Album opener ‘Hey You’ is a thunderous yet melodious march of “foot on the monitor” metal come rock, the kind of metal come rock that was labelled as just metal during the eighties when bands such as Def Leppard, Kiss, and even Whitesnake were all considered heavy metal! Vypera is a band that transcends the metal and rock labels, performing music for fans of both genres – ‘Riding On The Wind’ brings to the fore a party-style atmosphere, the band maintaining a smile-inducing brand of metal that’s simply incredible!
The intensity of the first two songs has been phenomenal, Vypera meaning some serious business with their sophomore album. An album that storms on with the highly energetic ‘Mary Jane’, and the continuation of the glorious foot on the monitor feel of old-school metal. From now on that I’m only gonna refer to the band as a metal band, ’cause I think that’s the side of the fence Vypera lean more towards! And just as I say, the band delivers the most hard rock song heard so far, ‘Stormwind’ taking front and centre with a sound not too dissimilar to American hard rockers Poison and Ratt. Vypera really are an enigma – are they rockers or metallers? Well, I answered that one earlier, the band maintaining a heavy metal stance courtesy of the bouncy and bombastic ‘Vicious’, banging heads harder than ever! The smile-inducing mood of the album is as strong as ever, and coupled with the huge party atmosphere, Vypera lives onstage must be fucking electric! The energy levels and oomph pouring out of ‘Race Of Time’ since it began are off the charts.
And with absolutely no sign of them dropping, the band roar on with the foot stomping ‘No Place For A Dreamer’, bombarding listeners with booming riffs and thundering drums heavy enough to give “normies” a thumping headache! But us “non-normies” – otherwise known as metalheads – suffer no such pain, the harder hitting the better as far as I’m concerned! So bring it on Vypera, bring it on. And bring it on they do, ‘Trying Hard To Run Away’ once again echoing the eighties sound of American band Poison, more specifically the band’s 1988 album ‘Open Up And Say…Ahh!’. Vypera are almost five thousand miles and four decades away from the eighties American metal sound, but boy would they have fitted in perfectly back then! Maybe even been one of the genre’s leading lights – ’cause right here, right now, the band certainly are, ‘Fool’s Game’ striding in with a slightly mellower feel, adopting a heavy-hitting thunder as it gets going proper. I really can’t stress enough how much of a party atmosphere the band have created here, an immense feel-good factor emanating from every single song on offer.
And with the title of ‘Speeding’, what do you reckon the speed of the song is? Yep – you’ve guessed it! Speedy! For ‘Speeding’ is the fastest song heard so far, the pace and power going through the fucking roof, the band rocking hard and rolling harder! The ground is literally shaking underfoot as ‘Speeding’ races on by. Who said Vypera were a rock band? Not me! And here comes the mid-tempo blend of metal and rock once more, ‘Daytona’ rearing its head high and rocking like an old-school metaller. So come on, all you listeners, fans and followers, raise your fists high and punch the air to salute a band delivering a top-notch collection of songs.
A collection of songs that go by the name of ‘Race Of Time’ – the sophomore album from Swedish metal band Vypera. An album that comes to a close with the most energetic song on offer, ‘Slave To Love’ a fast-paced furore of foot on the monitor heavy metal with a monolithic head bang ability. Not to mention the glorious sing a long-able chorus!
Overall, a sparkling blend of metal and rock, Vypera hit hard and kicked harder with an immense array of melodious songs.
TRACKLIST
Hey You
Riding On The Wind
Mary Jane
Stormwind
Vicious
No Place For A Dreamer
Trying Hard To Run Away
Fool’s Game
Speeding
Daytona
Slave To Love
Vypera: Facebook
Release Year: 2023
Label: Frontiers Music s.r.l.
Category: Album
Country: Sweden
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire and Metal-Roos.
