Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In life, there are so few things you can count upon to stay true to their original purpose or their standpoint and ethic; fluidity is a virtue but so is being able to stand tall and counter argue with passion why some are going off course and heading into the unknown, without a map, without a torch and without hope.

Counting on something to keep the fire blazing can lead the listener down that road without the aid of the map, uncharted waters and the odd sign of mythical persuasion saying here be dragons, when in actual fact it is nothing more than the snake in the grass. You can’t count on much but you can rely in Tom Vamos to keep the mind alert, the smile of anarchy on your face and the smell of raw deep in the nostrils, a sense of earnest power shaking your core but giving you that life preserver, that Magnet Shield to hold and save your soul from eternal boredom.

Joined by Villy Raze, Ollie Fontaine and Alex McDowall, Tom Vamos explodes once more into the Universe and gives the Magnet Shield all the attraction it requires to make sure that the listener revels in the anarchy of the live performance, set down, almost in the stream of consciousness approach; not for Tom Vamos the 100 takes, for in that sense of search for perfection you lose the main point of music, is that it requires the spark of spontaneity in which to be overwhelming and beautiful.

In the five songs offered on the mini album, Into A Kiss, Magnet Shield, Vibrate, Forty and Slide, Tom Vamos is at his subversive and magnificent best, a charm of the raw which ignites and directs the listener to the path of consistency and passion, for without the bells of whistles, without a producer placing thoughts that sometimes don’t belong in the music, the circus of music is straight forward and electric.

A welcome return for Tom Vamos, a musician who keeps the path clear and free of the unnecessary; Magnet Shield is just pure emotion unleashed.

Ian D. Hall