Mary Shelley Overdrive ~ Shock Theatre (EP) (album review) ... A soundtrack to my neighbor's indy horror film!

Style: experimental, shock rock, heavy metal, psychobilly, surf, garage
Label: Rigorous Mortis Records
Year: 2007
Home: Columbia, South Carolina

Members: Mark Wood, Simon McCorkindale, Miss Wyckedevil Jones, Artistic Whit ~ all instruments

 

 

 

  A strange debut release. One of the stranger albums I've heard. MSO is trying to do something musically but it comes off detrimental to the music ... on the other hand maybe the goal of this album is to sound not like an album but a soundtrack to my next door neighbor's self-made horror film. In that case, they do a good job. "Jack The Ripper" opens with the cry "Monsters, sex & rock'n'roll" followed by a super condensed guitar (i.e. it sounds like the sound is cutting in & out) joined by a simple surf beat & some shouting of some simple vocals (i.e. "I see him coming near, get away") about facing Jack the Ripper or a monster & inter-spliced with the shout "Jack the Ripper" though it sounds like "Jack the rubber", which would give some new depth to this depth less wanna-be Rob Zombie soundtrack. Or, at least, that would be the shock theater part. "House Of A Thousand Corpses" opens with a Frankenstein movie excerpt & is basically a country-esque 3 note riff on a guitar heavy on the reverb. There's also some distorted guitars & a female & distorted voice male trading lines ... a strange song but the highlight of the album albeit country music on LSD. Maybe this is the shock part? "Halloween" is a real Rob Zombie stomp, the first metal song, but sans any real head-banging stomp it goes along so slowly on one chord for the entire verse. Yes, one chord played in four strums is the entire riff. Maybe in someone else's hands it might be more interesting but here, & accompanied with some strange musical experiments, it noticeably lacks any punch. This is a band that would be better off to ignore the studio tweaks & let the music shine, unless their goal is extreme wierdness & something that doesn't head bang. I'd really like to hear them live & see what they really sound like or maybe a later release. I like surf & shock rock, but I also like the experiment to work. It's a nice effort but I think they got too caught up in the effort & the idea of it. There's covers on here by the Misfits & Rob Zombie, but the essence of those bands is gone as MSO try too hard to imitate & scare & do neither. The other thing with shock rock is that it's very tongue-in-cheek. This is a band taking itself way too serious. Also features the songs "Halloween", "Shock Theatre Overture" & odd barely literal soundtrack musical piece "New Orleans Funeral For Evil Elvis," of which the highlight is the name. Though, if you're looking for metal, surf & country all on the same album with lots of shallow shock rock that doesn't really shock ... have I got a Xmas present for you! On another note, I couldn't find but one picture of MSO. What type of band doesn't show themselves? Don't answer that.

Roger Taylor ~ Strange Frontier (album review) ... Exploring strange frontiers under the Queen's orders!

Style: experimental, hard rock
Label: EMI
Year: 1984
Home: Britain

Members: Roger Taylor ~ vocals/drums/guitars/bass/keyboards
David Richards ~ keyboard/piano
Rick Parfitt ~ rhythm guitar

Guests: John Deacon ~ bass
Freddie Mercury ~ keyboards/b. vocals

 

Remember Queen's techno-disco-pop phase driven not by heart-breaking piano ballads but drum machines & keyboards? You don't? Well, they had one from about 1980 to 1984 with the weakest albums of their career: The Game, Hot Space & The Works with the Flash Gordon Movie Soundtrack as the only break, however odd, from the pop mess. This era ended with the mix-bag but far better A Kind Of Magic which ended up being their final tour with Mercury. There were lots of hits to come out of this era but the ratio of hit to bum song is greatly unbalanced & the hits are so strong they cause us to forget the flops. We remember "Under Pressure" but forget that the ten songs that accompanied it on Hot Space are horrible. If you don't believe me recall from the era "Don't Try Suicide", "Machines (Back To Humans)" or "Body Language." Drummer Roger Taylor obviously didn't read the critics or fan reviews as his solo album Strange Frontier immediately reminds me of these Queen albums. "Strange Frontier" even features a bit of "Radio Ga Ga" from The Works in it. Taylor's biggest dilemma, on all his albums & even with his solo band The Cross, is weak lyrics. They have such a weak emotional quality that even a few well-placed clichés would make them better. Taylor likes to write about social & political dilemmas, which is commendable, if not love songs but most of his lyrics are so maudlin the point is quickly lost. What's worse is that he tries to be Bruce Springsteen, even changing his vocal tone, in the Springsteen cover "Racing In The Streets" which includes the way too familiar line: "Summers here & the time is right for goin' racing in the streets" with a refrain that could be out of "American Pie". Under Springsteen's skill this song worked & was a stable of early set lists, but under Taylor the result is imitative & largely embarrassing. Instead of a tribute to Motown & the Beach Boys, which it was for the Boss, it's a tribute to the art of poor cover tunes. This is followed by the Dylan cover "Masters Of War". At least he doesn't try to sound like Dylan on this one ... so the song just sounds like another bland Taylor song. Sometimes you just listen to an album wondering what the musician was thinking at the time & did the album come close? I get this feeling for many of Paul McCartney's solo albums. Did anyone hear this before it was released I ask? Obviously not. It's interesting to hear a talented musician away from their band. Queen was talent through the roof, albeit The Cosmos Rocks with Paul Rodgers should not have happened as a coda to their successful career. But, away from their bands ... some musicians should enjoy their time off & just cash royalty checks. Strange frontier is indeed the perfect title for this ... strange frontier. & what's even worse is that one of the great vocalists guests on backing vocals but it's hard to figure out on which song! It's that strange! Though, I will say, I love Roger Taylor's drumming in Queen ever since I first heard them as a boy & for years called him by favorite drummer (usurped by Zeppelin's John Bonham), so I don't think he's an untalented hack & I even like the songs he sang for the band. But, a drummer featuring drum machines on his solo album is called not using one's talents. & I'm not saying that drum machines are bad. Bill Bruford has shown their value over his 40 year career, but he actually plays them not just programs them. Though, not to be too harsh, I do like the very simple cover art.

Live ~ Secret Samahdi (album review) ... Spiritual soul searching never sounded so good!

Style: hard rock, alt rock
Label: Radioactive
Year: 1997
Home: Pennsylvania

Members: Ed Kowalczyk ~ vocals/rhythm Guitar
Chad Taylor ~ lead guitar/b. vocal
Patrick Dahlheimer ~ bass
Chad Gracey ~ drums/percussion/b. vocal

Additional: Jennifer Charles ~ b. vocal
Doug Katsaros ~ strings
John Carin ~ keyboards

Everyone knows of Christian Metal as much as everyone knows about metal with Satanic overtones, there being very few actual Devil worshipping metal bands & those that are probably don't flaunt it. But, outside of that it's easy to forget just how much religion is laced through hard rock & metal & turns it into a more spiritual music than one might imagine ... it's not just Madonna & the Beatles that spout religious doctrine. Black Sabbath wears crosses on stage not to criticize Christianity but to ward off evil, while Dio's fingered devil horns are an Italian way of warding off the evil eye that was corrupted into a Satanic symbol. Even the blues scale itself, used in so much metal, is supposedly filled with the Devil's notes thus the naming of the pentatonic scale. Many song lyrics deal with Armageddon & spiritual corruption that's not exclusively Satanic or Christian. Led Zeppelin is a good example of this, particularly with Jimmy Page's obsession with magician Aleister Crowley. In the contemporary scene one of the more prominent spiritually influenced rock bands has been Live, as directly seen in their album titles: Secret Samahdi, Samahdi being a Hindu term & the more esoteric Awake, Radiant Sea & The Distance To Here which all also encompass indirectly Hindu/Buddhist ideology. Their album Mental Jewelry was even heavily inspired by mystic J. Krishnamurti. I first started listening to Live, beyond their MTV hits "Lightening Crashes" & "Rattlesnake" (the former opening this album), 5 years ago when I discovered their lead singer Ed Kowalczyk once publicly admired Adi Da Samraj, who is also my spiritual guru & as of today I'm an official devotee of his. I'll confess to being musically disappointed with Secret Samahdi which was written under the influence of Adi Da Samraj but with no direct references to Him, albeit "Insomnia & The Hole In The Universe" does mention visiting a swami & "Turn My Head" is a phrase He frequently uses describing the turning of one's attraction ... which is here ambiguous if its meant religiously or sexually, which was probably a good thing when Kowalczyk later denied deeply following a then controversial teacher. But, musically the album drips of spirituality with pieces of typical Indian sounds, including tambura drones (i.e. "Unsheathed"), while the singing is often sensitive like someone whispering a secret or a prayer. The lyrics also keep things somewhat mysterious, like religion itself, & are very reminiscent of R.E.M. One of the thing that really makes the music of Live interesting, beyond the religious connection as that doesn't ensure good music, is how within one song they paint meditative moods only to then break the mood with some unexpected hard rock crunch. You might hear soft strings only to be turned over to a distorted guitar with the next part. It makes their music interesting & never predictable. This isn't necessarily music to rock out to. This is music to hear. Not hear in the sense of just listening to the lyrics or just the music, that's listening but not hearing. There's a difference. One is for critics. One is for music lovers. This is music to get lost in. It's healthy fun for the ears & the spirit. It's not often I encounter visionary music.

Sombre Presage ~ Tribute To Burzum (EP) (album review) ... Tribute to darkness!

Style: experimental, black metal, tribute, instrumental, drone
Label: Occultum Productions
Year: 2006
Home: France

Members: Voxum ~ all instruments

 

 

 

Burzum is poor production, guitars thrashing, literally screaming vocals that are more like death cries from a Saw movie & probably what your grandmother calls noise. Sombre Presage is keyboard arpeggios & melodies, guitars that stay on the same note or chord for whole bars then take another to change while making a wall of feedback behind the melodic keyboards, creepy vocals that are heavily chorus laden & a pace as slow as Leonard Cohen & only a hint of drums. But, SP, which is actually just one man named Voxum, gets to the heart of Burzum in a way that one wouldn't expect. Also, you may not even realize Burzum has a heart until you hear it against this album then go & listen to the originals. This might be similar to a classical orchestra or string trio covering rock songs, but this is much more than doing interesting covers with different instrumentation. SP are actually digging into the songs reinterpreting them, proof being new titles for the tracks & showing us the inspiration can be for a band that isn't isn't speed obsessed. You'll never be able to hear Burzum the same again after this. A haunting album featuring "Dunkelheit," the instrumental "Naar Himmelen Klarner" & "Illa Tioandi" which features the sound of rain & thunder. The only thing that could be better is if he'd used a real acoustic piano because you just can't imitate that sound on an electric keyboard with the same authenticity.

Year Of The Moth ~ Year Of The Moth (aka debut) (EP) (album review) ... Day of the proggy metal!

Style: experimental, heavy metal, hard rock
Label: self-released
Year: 2009
Home: Pheonix, Arizona

Members: Kevin Dye ~ vocals/guitar
Tim Van Vlack ~ guitar
Terry Douglas ~ drums
James Ray ~ bass

   Made up of Arizona music scene alumni & studio musicians YOTM have come together to try their hand at progressive metal. This isn't overly complicated music or even power metal but sticks to the basic building blocks of the heavy metal sound to create interesting tonal arrangements with an experimental edge. Much of the music is also based around obvious layering, with a single guitar then joined by another to only go back & forth throughout a song creating a mixture of individual moments within a song versus the standard riff A-riff B-riff A-riff C-repeat, approach. The 5 minute instrumental "Manifesto" is a great example of this enthralling musical ingenuity. One particular highlight is "Circus Monkey", which has a two-guitar riff that actually sounds like each foot being put down by a giant monkey plodding along & cracking the earth, which through the rest of song gets more interesting variations than many bands put on a whole album. The regular use of slightly synthesized vocals is also a highlight giving them a unique progressive edge. Vocals are always a great thing to tweak to give a band a unique &/or recognizable sound. Just look at Yes, Rush, L.A. Guns with Jizzy Pearl or even the chatty Megadeth. In general, the songs of YOTM tend to have a heavy metal sound but aim for this via tight riffs over the speed & thrash approach, which makes for more enjoyable listening experience over all. I'd love to hear some live tracks from this band as I have the feeling they would be different but incredibly interesting variations on their studio work ... let alone full of energy cause this is head-banging music for sure. The only thing that could damage these tight arrangements live is a poor sound system, which they've probably had plenty of in some of those smaller Arizona clubs! A recommended band to check out!

George Harrison ~ Cloud Nine (album review) ... Krishna's musical incarnation!

Style: rock
Label: Dark Horse
Year: 1987
Home: England

Musicians: George Harrison ~ vocals/guitars/keyboards/sitar
Jim Keltner ~ drums
Jeff Lynne ~ guitars/bass/b. vocals/keyboards

Guests: Eric Clapton ~ guitar
Elton John, Gary Wright ~ piano
Ringo Starr ~ drums

Additional: Ray Cooper ~ percussion/drums
Jim Horn ~ sax
Bobby Kok ~ cello
Vicki Brown ~ b. vocals

 

  When I was a boy I had the 45 single (remember those?) of "Got My Mind Set On You". I used to listen to it over & over while mom would be getting ready to take me to school. Coming home I'd go back to my little plastic record player. It was a couple years later that I really began listening to the Beatles, but by then it was too late as I was bound to be a life-long George Harrison fan. The Beatles? Yeah, they're okay, too. It wasn't until a few years ago that I realized that "Got My Mind..." isn't so much a traditional love song but a love song to God ... or I should say that it comes across that way in George's hands as it's not his composition. I always admired George's spiritual inklings, which I share but not because of his direct influence & his almost simplistic guitar solos & songs ... though I'll confess that his solo career is probably the most up & down of all the Beatles with as many oddities as hits. If you include the instrumental soundtrack Wonderwall oddities is an understatement. Cloud Nine, his comeback after five years not recording, is a polished George reining in many of his musical experiments to create almost folksy simple sounding songs, very much like what he'd do with the Travelling Wilburys later, that go for catchy arrangements over fancy musical foreplay with Indian instruments. Also, this album shows that one can write religious songs & still craft a hit ... ie. "Got My Mind Set On You". This album also features the hits "Cloud 9" & "When We Was Fab". One of the strongest traits of George's musical career & the thing that often sticks in my ear, were his simple guitar solos that were cluttered with notes. This album brings back that dynamic in soft arrangements that allow both his guitar & voice to shine. When you've listened to as much Eric Clapton as I have you recognize his sound immediately & he's also no stranger to playing with George, having been the first non-Beatle to play on a Beatles album ("While My Guitar Gently Weeps") & his guitar comes through ("That's What It Takes"). The other guests on the album, Elton John & Ringo Starr, are not so easily recognizable. Sadly, this would be George's last studio album before the incomplete Brainwashed outside of his work with the Wilburys. It's a highlight of his career no doubt & sad that he didn't follow it up, but it was a reminder of how creative he was. Match this album with All Things Must Pass & you've got George's albums & I'll even risk saying that these two far outweigh much of what his fellow Beatles have done with their ongoing plethora of recordings. George was not about holding hands or sing-alongs with catchy "Hey Jude" outros. His songs are introspective musical meditations with his dedication to his religious beliefs unrivaled by few other musicians outside of Cat Stevens. It's hard to not like him. Put this album on with a loved one when you're curled up on the couch & it's raining out & let me know if you agree.

Dio ~ Diamonds: The Best Of... (hits comp) (album review) ... Going holy diving!

Style: heavy metal
Label: Vertigo
Year: 1992
Home: Los Angeles

Members: Ronnie James Dio ~ vocals/keyboards
Vivian Campbell, Craig Goldy, Rowan Robertson ~ guitars
Jimmy Bain, Teddy Cook ~ bass
Vinny Appice, Simon Wright ~ drums
Claude Schnell, Jens Johansson ~ keyboards

 
In honor of his death today, this review gets put up early form its place in the queue. Ronnie James Dio was a great singer, even if he's a walking elfin caricature who was performing as wild as ever well past retirement age. With Rainbow, Black Sabbath/Heaven & Hell, and his own band RJD has seen a stream of hits come from his pen and through his distinctive vocals, putting a stamp on all bands that no successor has been able to match. I'll even confess that I actually might like the Dio era of Black Sabbath better than the Ozzy days or, aghast, the Tony Martin albums. But, really, those are three different bands. I do know, after having seen Heaven & Hell last year at Madison Square Garden Dio was probably the far better performer and had more control over his vocals than his foe Ozzy. The problem with Dio, the namesake band formed with fellow Sabbath alum Vinny Appice, is, perhaps due to line-up changes, the hits just weren't always there. They have but a few classics which makes this collection both good and bad. Good in the sense that it has all the hits ("Holy Diver," "Rainbow In The Dark," "Don't Talk To Strangers" & "We Rock") spanning their career from 1983-94 and if you're a casual fan this will complete the Dio requirement for your album collection. There's a few later songs that don't hold up as well so the album starts stronger than it ends but it'll take care of all your needs without you having to week through the entire up and down discography. But, listening just to their hits, Dio pretty much has everything you want from metal, both in terms of the band and the man. Rest in piece one of our rock icons!

The Real HorrorShow ~ Ultra Kuku (album review) ... From the dark punk pits of Poland!

Style: punk, ska, oi
Label: self-released
Year: 1996
Home: Poland

Members: Majka, Banan ~ guitars
Specjals ~ drums
Gruby ~ bass

It should be obvious by now that I don't review many punk albums, basically because it's a style of music that I just can't get into. No, I'm not a Ramones, Sex Pistols or even Green Day fan & have never been. Yes, they have a few songs I like, but that's about it. & those songs don't make me want to seek out more in the genre. The last punk album review I did got me in a bit of trouble with the band who felt I didn't understand their music & probably shouldn't have wasted my time with them even though I did give their album a good review. Actually, in a long e-mail correspondence they said I didn't understand their message & thus shouldn't review them, let alone I showed my ignorance of British naval history, but it was nice that I tried to do them a favor by reviewing the album even though I'm not a punk rocker. I'm glad I gave them a good review! So, again, I return to another punk album with Ultra Kuku ... I guess I'm a glutton for wasting time & asking for trouble! Don't answer that. & yet again, I give a basically good review to a punk album when I willingly confess I don't care for punk rock. Will I never learn? Oh well. Though I did do some reading on British naval history in the meantime. As for not understanding this band - they sing entirely in Polish! I haven't a chance if I tried considering my Polish is as bad as my ancient Sumerian or Canadian! The Real HorrowShow caught my attention for a couple reasons: their poor production gives them a very 70's sound which I like, half the album is ska which I've liked since the first time I heard it from the front row of a mosh pit where we were all going crazy dancing & they're from Poland which was once a favorite travel destination of mine & I've always had good luck with liking Polish bands. Actually, they sound like a Polish band I have a couple albums by, but whose name I can't pronounce & even if I could nobody reading this would know them. A roving bassline behind lots of strumming, versus note-based metal riffs, with an occasional guitar where you can tell some young kid is just trying to play his heart out & give it his best ... while probably wishing the production was better so everyone could hear him better ... describes most of Ultra Kuku. Supposedly this is an Oi! band but without being able to understand the political lyrics the difference between Oi! & straight ahead early Green Day-esque punk is hard to discern. For me the real highlights of the album are the ska songs, whether hardcore ska ("Honor Gangstera", "Al Capone") or with just a ska feeling ("'77"). These songs really show off what the band can do & luckily take up half the album. There's also a slow reggae-esque ballad "Stay Rude" that is a particular favorite with it's change from almost whispered vocals to shouts. If you didn't realize it, as I didn't until I was doing a little research to find out more about the band, which I didn't, they get their name from the classic book "A Clockwork Orange". I read that book a decade ago & just don't have a memory for book quotes. I can't say go out & buy this release because you probably wouldn't be able to find it if you tried, though you can check out their music, like many of the lesser known bands I review, on myspace of which you'll get to if you click on the band name above this review.

The Firm ~ The Firm (aka debut) (album review) ... With a firm place in music history!

Style: hard rock, blues-rock
Label: Atlantic Records
Year: 1985
Home: England

Members: Paul Rodgers ~ vocals/guitars
Jimmy Page ~ guitars
Tony Franklin ~ bass/keyboards
Chris Slade ~ drums/b. vocals

Additional: Steve Dawson ~ trumpet
Paul "Shilts" Weimar, Willie Garnett, Don Weller ~ sax
Sam Brown, Helen Chappelle, Joy Yates ~ b. vocals

This is one of those albums everyone has in their vinyl collection ... & probably don't want to part with it but neither listen to it much either. Even when Paul Rodgers joined Queen ... the album probably got pulled out, looked at nostalgically & maybe Side A listened to ... & well, that says it all about this wanna-be powerhouse. This is one of the legendary supergroups of the 80's, up there with Asia & GTR, staying together long enough to release 2 albums, but the idea is stronger than the outcome as became particularly obvious to the follow-up to this debut Mean Business. It's got all the pieces there for something great - all the recognizable musical bits that forged their own legacies decades earlier - but something just never clicked for The Firm. The foundation just wasn't ... firm enough. Paul Rodgers of Bad Company & Free on vocals is in fine form as always, albeit, as demonstrated in his work with Queen, it's the limited range of a blues belter who doesn't always let loose enough that is his weakest trait. Led Zeppelin guitar god Jimmy Page creates his trademarked layered riffs & arrangements that at moments are reminiscent of later Zeppelin, albeit few of the songs ever really seem to rock out or even dig deep into his blues roots that laced so much of the Zep repertoire. Putting this together with his later reunion with Robert Plant one begins to realize how much John Paul Jones affected Plant's arrangements giving them a spice he seems to often miss & pushing Zeppelin to the forefront of music. Steady beats are laid down by famous bald-headed drummer Chris Slade of Manfred Mann & Uriah Heep & later AC/DC. The relatively unknown Tony Franklin from Roy Harper is on bass, his largest credit being the introduction of the fretless bass into metal, playing a thick & funky bass that gives the album a definite 80's feel. The Firm largely plays it safe, almost too safe at moments. It's an enjoyable listen & Page is always a pleasure, but his joining with David Coverdale a decade later would be far more exciting. Perhaps one of the problem is that this smells of its obvious commercial appeal, something Led Zeppelin never did, proof being that in Britain they refused to allow the release of singles, while Bad Company & Uriah Heep both existed in the shadows of prog-rock that believed in the art of music over pretty much everything else. Albeit, it should be said The Firm is better than I'm probably describing it & there's a reason somewhere why it appears in everyone's collection. It's just that these musicians are put up to such high expectations that one imagines that the album should be better. These guys came from good bands & would return to them in various ways. The Firm just wasn't meant to be, though it did nothing to damage any reputations.

Mayhem ~ Deathcrush (EP) (album review) ... Murder & mayhem!

Style: death metal, black metal
Label: Posercorpse Music
Year: 1987
Home: Norway

Members: Euronymous ~ guitar
Necrobutcher ~ bass
Manheim ~ drums
Maniac ~ vocals
Messiah ~ vocals

Additional: Conrad Schnitzer ~ drum programming

One can't honestly look at the spectrum or history of metal without mentioning the infamous Mayhem. I'll confess to liking some of their current stuff, but the music they make now is not the music that solidified their reputation as metal legends. Further, no mention of Satanism in music is complete without a mention of Mayhem, one of the pioneers in creating the Norwegian death metal movement. Albeit, that has more to do with their actions outside the band then the music, in all honesty. There's books written about them & the movement, but in brief it was Mayhem that featured the infamous cast of Necrobutcher, Euronymous, Hellhammer & Dead among others. Dead committed suicide leaving a goodbye note apologizing for all the blood, while Hellhammer kept parts of his skull for a necklace & photographed the body before calling the police, while the photo was stolen & would appear on a bootleg, while rumors also add that Euronymous, owner of a record store named 'Hell', ate part of the brain only to be eventually stabbed to death by church burning Satanist & bassist Count Grishnackh of rival band Burzum, who supposedly was jealous because Euronymous had a more evil reputation ... all of which had it's literal flames fed by the media & overnight the death metal scene was born. It's said that before the media took a hold of it all there were only a few church burnings a year & now there's countless. Today Mayhem, led by lone original member Hellhammer, is almost boring with their decapitation sheep heads as stage pieces & forays into industrial music. How can you compare sheep heads to church burnings & murder? As for the music? Who needs music when you've got this history! That's the least interesting thing. It's a bit much to say that Mayhem, in their heyday, were as grizzly & dark as the lives of it's participants, but in this early pre-Dead/Hellhammer second demo they were definitely trying & were on the right path. When the rest of the world was enjoying Metallica these guys were running their riffs as fast as possible at the extreme edge of distortion while shrieking like Mr. Hyde on reverb. It's actually far better than the many of the later bands that came along in imitation. These guys are too raw to be imitated properly. Albeit, Mayhem in their later industrial-slanted incarnation is actually musically more dynamic & interesting. But, this is raw metal insanity like Metallica didn't even dare do but dreamed about. This is not about excellent musicianship, as the playing is pretty sloppy, which production values to match, & it's almost amazing that something good might musically happen as the odds are against it, but the songs do rock in their own way ... just don't compare this to Metallica. It's fast, furious, messy, brutal, dark. That's Mayhem. End of story. You can all go home now. Though, if there hadn't been the deaths & controversy, one wonders what the death metal scene would have looked like today cause this music is pretty limited, in the same way that disco had a limited life. Cradle of Filth fans apply within.

Anthem ~ Cuttin' Thru (album review) ... Happy Christian metal!

Style: heavy metal, Christian metal
Label: Tunesmith
Year: 1982
Home: Canada

Members: n/a 

 

Few may believe this, but there is a genre of metal called 'happy metal', versus 'doom metal', & it's exactly what it sounds. No, this is not the same as 'Christian metal', but I'm sure the overlap is pretty overwhelming because happy & metal tend not to be words you find in the same sentence so there can't be that many bands in one group & not the other. Well, knowing the fringe Christian groups out there, there might be a Christian death metal band that believes Jesus didn't resurrect ... if you know of one I'll be happy to review them! Anthem, a female fronted Christian metal band not the famous Graham Bonnett outfit, is probably a candidate for happy metal if there ever was one, if only they weren't 20 years too early. If your church going grandma doesn't approve of metal, this is the album to share with her ... & make her see the light ... of metal. Light of metal? The Christian message is belted out clearly here as unabashadly as Nunslaughter sings of Satan worship or Nile of Ancient Egypt or Sammy Hagar of partying. There's no hiding the Christian message like some metal bands do to appear more metal than Christian. Musically, picture Judas Priest or Thin Lizzy, considering the year this was released & what metal was around at the time, but with a soft-spoken lead singer that might be better in a blues band ... or a gospel choir. If you know Christian blues-rock icons Rez (aka Resurrection Band) this is probably the metal equivalent. This is full of riffs & keyboard ambiance, but often has the pacing of a Rush album, where speed is not an issue or even a goal. There's no typical metal-esque darkness on this album, even when you hear "the world is falling deeper into sin, Satan's pushing harder than he's been, his forces working over time, to drag you down into the slime of his dark world" which doesn't even come off as venomous, albeit in 1981 death metal wasn't quite a mature musical form to be generally influenced by. Ah, metal without the influence of death metal ... it really sounds so weak & like it's missing something. The sole release from this little band Cuttin' Thru is not just is a historical musical moment from after the death of Christ but before the birth of death metal. This is music for rosary counting grandma. She'll be pleased you finally gave up your satanic mush. This is still metal but she can't win them all. What? She's Jewish? I've got something for that, hang on. What? She's Muslim? I've got something for that too. What? She's Hindu? You'll never guess what I just found from Singapore. What? She's an atheist? You've got a problem with her?

Jizzy Pearl's L.A. Guns ~ Shrinking Violet (album review) ... Jizzy Pearl is loaded!

Style: hard rock, glam metal
Label: Perris
Year: 1999
Home: Los Angeles

Members: Jizzy Pearl ~ vocals
Tracii Guns ~ guitars
Johnny Crypt ~ bass
Steve Riley ~ drums

Additional: Teddy Andreadis ~ keyboards

Guest: Gilby Clarke ~ guitar

This album featured new lead singer Jizzy Pearl, which cracked the L.A. Guns fan base with controversy & in turn made this the only L.A. Guns album to feature him. But for everyone else unfamiliar with the legacy of the 9 singers that have passed under the Guns umbrella Jizzy is without a doubt the most noticeable thing on this album with a raspy near-falsetto voice that seems to become something new with each song like a cast of characters on parade (i.e. "Bad Whiskey"). For all the controversy surrounding what he didn't bring to the band compared to his predecessors he makes this album stand out from similar bands & even similar albums. I've never heard a voice like Jizzy's & rarely have I heard such a range of vocal styles on one album ... sadly the band isn't able to give him what he needs musically to shine. Honestly, Shrinking Violet largely comes across as just another album from just another L.A. glam band half-heartedly chugging away half-heartedly on quasi-memorable songs that mix hard rocking riffs with occasional forays into Pink Floyd-wannabe experimental territory highlighted by tired power ballads, acoustic guitars & keyboards. If it wasn't for Jizzy I probably wouldn't review this album. Jizzy has one of the more unique voices I've heard in a while & I can see why they would recruit him. I would do the same if I had a band. Actually, I wouldn't mind singing like him. He should probably be more famous than he is. He later fronted Ratt from 2000-06, which was probably a good fit for his particularly raspy & odd tones ... albeit they weren't exactly chart-toppers at the time. This may or may not be the greatest L.A. Guns album & Jizzy may or may not be the best singer the band has had, but this release certainly stands out from other albums & even the rest of the Guns catalog. The highlights of the album "Shrinking Violet" & "Girl You Turn Me On" open the album, though sadly it's a hit or miss affair afterwards of weak arrangements occasionally brought back to life by hard rockers (i.e. "I'll Be There"). This is not the raw garage band that Guns has become known as, but largely sounds like a band on it's last legs & trying something new because they have nothing to lose. It's an interesting affair I'd recommend for the singing. You probably won't come away with any feel of what type of band Guns is, sadly. For those who don't know, Guns was founded by guitarist Tracii Guns of whom Guns N' Roses is named for, as it was a combination of bands L.A. Guns & Hollywood Rose with Axl Rose that was the original line-up of GNR ... only to have all Guns members replaced ... Tracii by Slash.

The Killers ~ Day & Age (album review) ... A maturing band!

Style: alt rock, indie, post-punk revival, new wave
Label: Island
Year: 2008
Home: Las Vegas

Members: Brandon Flowers ~ vocals/keyboards/bass
Dave Keuning ~ guitar/b. vocals
Mark Stoermer ~ bass/guitar/b. vocals
Ronnie Vannucci ~ drums/percussion

Additional: Daniel de los Reyes ~ percussion
Tommy Marth ~ saxophone

Sam's Town is a dense Duran Duran-esque affair in comparison to it's successor Day & Age, which is what you get when you peel the layers away. It's the outcome of a matured band show a softer slide after the rushing energy of the previous album. I personally prefer the layers of S'sT, which is reminiscent to the multi-layered prog-rock that I grew up, but this has it's own charms. The highlight tracks, such as the MTV chart-topper "Human" & "Spaceman", are equal to anything they've done previously, while the softer ballads provide a much needed release to the tension their odd & individualistic arrangements often seem to create. As for their infamous lyrics, which on this album included the hotly debated "Human" with it's chorus of "Are we human or are we dancer" ... based on a quote by Hunter S. Thompson about becoming a "generation of dancers" ... this is the stuff that makes Michael Stipe of R.E.M. a lyrical legend. You can't help singing along ... just don't think about the details about what you're singing & how it doesn't quite make sense. My only problem with this album is it has more of a dance beat that it's new wave predecessor, such as in "Joy Ride," which works but sometimes verges a little on Men At Work-esque corny, particularly as I see them as a rock band not a dance outfit. Though, I do love Men At Work. The Calypso rhythm of "I Can't Stay" is a nice touch, too & just not heard enough on rock albums outside of Santana.