VIXEN – Vixen [Reissue]

After many years out of the limelight, Jan Kuehnemund, Vixen’s founder and guitar player, decided it was time again… time for those Vixen chicks to bring the magic back to the fans in 2004.

For different reasons, the band has a different lineup than what most of us might remember from the 80s and 90s, which to some might be sad and good news for others. Jan discovered Jenna and Kat from L.A.-based bands (including Belladonna, NoNo BadDog, and Some Like It Hot), and Lynn joined the band from Florida-based Armadillo Sandwich.

After a successful tour in the States with Voices of Metal, the girls decided to start working on new material, and they are currently in the studio recording, and also are getting ready to play the Sweden Rock Festival next summer… a great surprise for all Scandinavians!

So Vixen are back, and EMI Records decided to re-release their first and most successful album, Vixen, which has been out of print since 1991.

While Doro Pesch and Lita Ford were more like the female versions of Mötley Crüe in the ’80s and ’90s, Vixen were more Glam and commercial, and maybe a bit like the female versions of Poison or Warrant… nothing bad about that!

The Vixen album has a great, but easy, sound. It’s easy to sing to and all of the songs are catchy. Janet Gardner has a great voice and Jan Kuehnemund impresses on her guitar. Remembering the 80s, Jan Kuehnemund, Lita Ford, and Nancy Wilson (Heart) were three of the best female guitar players in all of Hard Rock/Metal.

Vixen’s most famous songs, “Edge Of A Broken Heart” and “Cryin’,” still bring out that same “girl power”/“I wanna to be in a rock band” feeling they did in the late ‘80s. All the guys wanted to bag them, and all the girls wanted to be them!

These girls sure knew how to rock ’n’ roll, and re-releasing this album was genius. 2005 will be a great year for Heavy Metal, and hopefully for these Metal chicks too!

The only bad thing that can be said about this album is the last song, “Charmed Life” — it kind of has a honky-tonk sound to it and actually could have scored high in The European Sing Festival, which for European rockers certainly isn’t a good thing. It just hasn’t got that typical Vixen sound the rest of the album has.

But other than that, it’s all good! Great to have Vixen back, so REV IT UP GIRLS!!