Yiannis Vogiantzis, or Jon Voyager, is known as a founding member and vocalist of the amazing and beloved prog metallers Need. Apart from that, he also maintains the band Bejeezus who play at weddings and other events. Here, in his first solo album, we hear him in a completely different style from the one that those of us who only know his metal side are used to.
As the Press Release states, Jon attempts to combine influences from musicians such as Neil Young, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, John Mayer and Dave Matthews. I cannot comment on this statement, as I’m not familiar with these artists at all. But “Monsters” is a very enjoyable sounding pop/rock album, and that’s coming from someone who in their everyday life will rarely want to listen to anything close to that style.
The songs are short in duration, with beautiful melodies. Some of them have an upbeat rhythm in order to cheer you up, some are calmer, bringing out a warm and nostalgic feeling. On drums and bass we find his bandmates from Need, Stelios Paschalis and Viktor Kouloubis respectively while on guitars we find Alexander Chrysostomides from Bejeezus. There are also other participations, such as that of Anna Tarba (she had sung in the last two Need albums) as well as members of Bejeezus on keyboards and brass.
Standing out are the amazing melancholic ballad “360” with the brass and female vocals, “Minor Tom” which is a clear reference to David Bowie (“Ground control to Minor Tom, do you read me”), “Streets Of Athens” as well as the heaviest song of the album “Call Me When You’re Drunk”, composed by Ravaya, Need’s guitarist. All in all, “Monsters” an interesting release from Jon and his company. I repeat that it’s not in my usual sound, so I can’t judge it more accurately, but logically fans of the aforementioned artists will appreciate it even more.
