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Various Artists - Grand Theft Auto Vice City OST - Volume 1: V-Rock review



Reviewer:
9.0

14 users:
9.36
Band: Various Artists
Album: Grand Theft Auto Vice City OST - Volume 1: V-Rock
Style: Heavy metal
Release date: October 29, 2002
A review by: Pierre Tombale


01. DJ Lazlow - Intro
02. Judas Priest - You've Got Another Thing Coming
03. Mötley Crüe - Too Young To Fall In Love
04. Megadeth - Peace Sells
05. Rockstar's Lovefist - Dangerous Bastard
06. Autograph - Turn Up The Radio
07. DJ Lazlow - Halftime
08. Twisted Sister - I Wanna Rock
09. Ozzy Osbourne - Bark At The Moon
10. Anthrax - Madhouse
11. Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes To Midnight
12. Slayer - Raining Blood
13. Tesla - Cumin' Atcha Live
14. David Lee Roth - Yankee Rose
15. DJ Lazlow - Outro
16. Exploder [commercial]
17. Thor [commercial]

Or the full title DJ Lazlow presents Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Vol. 1 - VRock. An easy concept is behind this compilation of 80's rock and metal hits, the game GTA Vice City is set in the 80's (best think of Miami) and has several 80's radio stations included. Rock Star Games decided to put out albums of each radio station, VRock is volume one in a set of cd's that each proveide different styles of music. VRock, which is the self-proclaimed Vice City's home of Rock 'N' Roll for 75 years, is now worth a review.

Concluding that a radio station has a dj (Lazlow aka DJ Hardrocker, if you didn't play the game) he also appears on the album, only his role has been cut to introduce and kind of moderate the halftime and outro. The playlist aswell has changed, some songs have been left out, such as 'Quiet Riot - Come On Feel The Noise' and 'The Cult - Sanctuary' aren't featured any more. Adding to that the songs have been switched to other positions in the playlist. What remains original is the songs themselves and there is quite a lot to tell about them. First of all it is a mix ranging from simple rock and glam ('Autograph- Turn Up The Radio') tunes and hymns such as 'I Wanna Rock' to 80's typical sounding metal (Ozzy- Bark At The Moon) to thrash metal like Megadeth and Slayer.
All the songs you hear on this cd are totally suitable for radio playing or to put into the cd player of your car, ok maybe not Slayer, listening to Raining Blood you may want to crash loads of cars like in the game? jokingly. Anyway what you get is a nice and mostly melodic collection that can count aswell as a definition of a sound of a decade, the eighties to be exact. The funny addition to that is the band Lovefist (which was invented by Rockstar Games), which really sounds like an 80's Glamrock/metal band. A short example of a quote: 'Is it true you like my curl? Do you think we look like girls??' Truly mocking the spirit of the hair band, the band also appears in the game and makes the same funny appeal. 'David Lee Roth's Yankee Rose' is another example of those good times fun tracks as well as 'Autograph's Turn Up The Radio'. Still my favourites on this one come a bit more the hard way: 'Anthrax - Madhouse' and 'Tesla - Cumin Atcha Live' are the best ones in my humble opinion, bang your curl, baby?
If you're not into 'weak' non-metal music you might leave your fingers off this one, since there are only few real metal songs on the record. All other people grab your copy of this album as soon as possible, If you're a fan of 80's music it's the perfect combination, lots of very catchy tunes are waiting for you, yeah you!
As mentioned a few tracks are missing, although the hole program fits on a 74 minute cd, I don't know why they didn't make it on the album, but the tracks are:
'Loverboy - Working For The Weekend', 'Quiet Riot - Come On Feel The Noise', 'The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary' and 'Lovefist - Fist Fury'. Anyway a nice collection of songs to play in your Corvette roadster as you ride into the sunset. 9 out of 10 points and drive home safely.

Written by Pierre Tombale | 20.05.2004




Comments

Comments: 10   Visited by: 302 users
20.06.2012 - 00:05
Unna Med
Great review!
Oh, maybe not Great, but it is certanly good.
Speaking of this soundtrack, I think it was the very first heavy-metal album I have heard in my friggin' life. Back then, when the GTA Vice City hit the spot I was a small little ugly thing. Maybe that is the main reason for me enjoying it.
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16.02.2013 - 08:53
Egigantea
I remember never really paying any attention to the radio when I playing this game as a kid, but damn is that a good playlist Rockstar manage to make for a video game.
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16.07.2014 - 03:56
Rating: 9
Ilham
Giant robot
Yeah I actually spent hours driving cars just for the radios. Many of them actually, not just VROCK.
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03.09.2014 - 05:27
Boxcar Willy
yr a kook
Pfft. I spent my time cutting people heads off with a Samurai sword and blowing up cars but idk to each his own.
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14:22 - Marcel Hubregtse
I do your mum

DESTROY DRUM TRIGGERS
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04.09.2014 - 03:47
Lit.
Account deleted
I wasn't even aware there were reasons for playing GTA aside from listening to the radio.
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05.09.2014 - 05:13
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Staff
Written by [user id=101272] on 04.09.2014 at 03:47
I wasn't even aware there were reasons for playing GTA aside from listening to the radio.

I like to drive around while maintaining the speed limit and adhering to the rules of the road, and generally obeying the law. I know it's not what the game was intended for but it's honestly what I enjoy most about it.
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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19.09.2024 - 15:03
Metal Diogenes
This soundtrack changed many, many lives. I remember being so young and naive I didn't even know Quiet Riot or Tesla when this came out, and neither did other kids. These days a soundtrack such as this would seem pretty "safe" when there's million better lesser known bands and songs around, but you have to remember that back in the day game soundtracks like this pretty much didn't exists. Listening to Iron Maiden and Slayer while playing GTA was the most hardcore thing imaginable. I guess Alcatrazz didn't make it to the album.
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You've got a lot of guts. Let's see what they look like!
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19.09.2024 - 15:44
AndyMetalFreak
A Nice Guy
Contributor
The thing I actually remember most about playing GTA was the music. This was the age I would have first been exposed to classics such as these. I remember hearing 2 Minutes 2 Midnight for the first time on this game and thinking wow this is Iron Maiden it's super cool!
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19.09.2024 - 15:54
musclassia
Staff
Written by Metal Diogenes on 19.09.2024 at 15:03

This soundtrack changed many, many lives. I remember being so young and naive I didn't even know Quiet Riot or Tesla when this came out, and neither did other kids. These days a soundtrack such as this would seem pretty "safe" when there's million better lesser known bands and songs around, but you have to remember that back in the day game soundtracks like this pretty much didn't exists. Listening to Iron Maiden and Slayer while playing GTA was the most hardcore thing imaginable. I guess Alcatrazz didn't make it to the album.

It's really crazy to look back and think how much GTA predicted and probably shaped my music taste; I really wasn't listening to much bar a small handful of bands in that period of 2003-2007 in which I was playing Vice City and San Andreas, and yet I naturally gravitated towards V-Rock and Radio X, respectively, listening to both of them. The Guitar Hero/Rock Band games did a lot to shape my initial getting into music seriously, and it was funny rediscovering songs like Peace Sells, 2 Minutes To Midnight, Raining Blood, Madhouse and so on on different iterations of those games after becoming so familiar with them on V-Rock. Perhaps coincidentially, much like how Vice City came before San Andreas, I found myself first getting into those 80s metal bands, and then when I was a couple of years older I became a fan of the grunge/alt metal bands on San Andreas like Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Faith No More, Jane's Addiction, etc.

I wonder how much relative impact the other Vice City/San Andreas channels had in getting people into other styles of music; I certainly enjoyed Wave 103 and Flash FM, but V-Rock was a major influence on me, and probably a lot of other people too
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19.09.2024 - 16:37
Metal Diogenes
Written by musclassia on 19.09.2024 at 15:54

I wonder how much relative impact the other Vice City/San Andreas channels had in getting people into other styles of music; I certainly enjoyed Wave 103 and Flash FM, but V-Rock was a major influence on me, and probably a lot of other people too

Around here they were hugely influential. I remember me and my friends started listening to thrash metal and later more extreme back in the school mostly inspired by this soundtrack alone. Some people also found Mötley Crüe here and got interested in all that glam stuff, some even formed their own local bands. Back in the day internet wasn't as big of a thing, so for many kids this was the first time they ever got to listen to this kind of stuff for real. Those were some good times.
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You've got a lot of guts. Let's see what they look like!
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