Vessel is a band, holding Fen Garatt (Die Cast, on guitars), James L. Brown (bass) and Barney Monger of Ground Zero (on drums). Completing the lineup with Doug Warren on vocals, the quartet plays a mixture of power-thrash metal as Pantera used to do during their Far Beyond Driven-album.

The nice thing about this band, is that they started doing gigs in London only one month after meeting each other! Then, knowing it took them only four months to write the songs for their debut-release Xebec, and having it produced by no one else than Mark Harwood (Cradle of Filth, Extreme Noise Terror), it’s certain this band isn’t a ‘next big thing’. Vessel is here to stay, proving it both live and on disc with songs like “Armageddon”, “Liar” and “Bleed”.

It’s that simple.

The raw aggression is still featured on this album, as is the energy vibe which is usually stumbled away when you’re working with a top-producer. The songs are good, maybe a bit short, but powerful, and the vicious drumming with bass guitar is simply wonderful. Definitely worth listening to if you can’t dig the new sound of Pantera. If you’re not too sure as of yet, you might want to get your hands on the Xebec EP which can be downloaded at mp3.com.

Further information is available through www.vessel.org.uk or http://crash.to/vessel.