Voodoo Six
Simulation Game

“Voodoo Six, the critically acclaimed London based hard rock band renown for delivering driving, contemporary rock with an undercurrent of blues and killer riffs, have partnered with Los Angeles based Explorer1 Music (E1) and will release ‘Simulation Game’ the second album featuring vocalist and front man Nik Taylor‐Stoakes on March 6th, 2020.” That is taken from the press material, we did review the band’s second album First Hit for Free and that was certainly not acclaimed. That was however in 2008, so there has been some time gone by since then so they might have improved to their sixth album, they do have a different vocalist so that can be positive. The cover also looks better than the one on the album from 2008. But is it better?

It isn’t a stylistically different album compared with the one I reviewed in 2008, the singer is better, and the sound is better but otherwise it sounds quite similar. The description in the first quote is pretty accurate, typical hard rock with some bluesy undertones, you can compare them with many bands as they don’t really do anything that stands out. It is an album without a real sense of novelty that you would like to hear when you listen to a new album you haven’t heard before, it isn’t particularly original either, just one more to add to the constantly growing supply of similar albums. The playing time is perhaps also a tad on the long side, but not so much that it is a negative to add to the list.

Overall, I think that Simulation Game is a pretty good album, it has some negatives like the lack of a strong hit song and the lack of fresh ideas. The lack of originality is overlooked by most music fans though, so that may not be much of an issue for others than critics, but the lack of a hit song may be more of a problem for them. None of the songs can be said to be poor, they are quite good all of them. It is one of those albums that can be described as too good to be bad and too bad to be great – average is how I would describe this album; it works but it isn’t particularly memorable and gets repetitive rather quickly.

Voodoo Six has put together a solid har rocking album here, if you share tastes with Steve Harris of Iron Maiden fame, or like the band’s earlier efforts it could be a good choice to check out this one. It is a moment of rocking entertainment, but nothing that gives a lasting impression – it is one more of those albums.

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