Style: heavy metal
Label: Riot
Year: 2010
Home: Texas
Members: Chris Jericho ~ vocals
Rich Ward ~ guitar/backing vocals
Sean Delson ~ bass
Frank Fontsere ~ drums
Guests: Mike Martin ~ guitars
Eric Frampton ~ keyboards
Renny Carroll ~ backing vocals
Jeff Waters ~ guitar solos
Lord Nelson ~ voice over
Many people said a wrestler couldn't be a politician, so what was Jesse Ventura doing running for government? Were those people right? I actually don't know as I didn't pay much attention to his term in office. Others said a wrestler couldn't be an actor, so what was Hulk Hogan doing as an MTV-generation reality star? Considering I like very few of the reality shows I'll only say he wasn't doing much & never learned anything from the Cyndi Lauper/WWF days. But, then we have former boxer Dino Martin, aka Dean Martin, & Mickey Rouke putting in a great performance last year on the movie screen. So, I guess, it's a 50/50 success rate. If you know anything about Fozzy you know it's led by Chris Jericho, WWF wrestling superstar ... I didn't continue my grandfather's habit of watching wrestling so I know nothing about him ... but I'll have to say he just tilted the balance 60/40 ... 60 in the red for success! I got my hands on this album for the shallow reason that I liked the name ... which is as much of a gamble as getting an album cause you like the album art ... but it paid off. This is a great band! Okay, Fozzy is obviously trying to be radio friendly going for Tool & Black Label Society inspired foundations of groovy riffs versus crazy guitars & Ozzy like vocals a la Jericho. But, that FM sheen doesn't hurt this band in the least. The album gets better with second listens, which also further brings out the different influences tucked into its arrangements that range from symphonic metal to thrash. There's even the odd 6 part 'Wormword' that is a Biblical acoustic/electric medieval folk metal opus of 14 minutes that ends the album on an interesting coda. The highlight of the album is the singing & the riffing. The only drawback was in a couple guitar solos that were a bad distraction that seemed to be always played in double time & aimed more for the sounds of a carnival attraction gone wrong than an asset to the songs. It was like a producer said the song will get on the radio faster if it has a guitar solo. Note to self: question logic of producers. P.S. to self: recommend this album highly!
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