Fast Eddie Clarke's Fastway ~ All Fired Up (album review) ... Burning hot blues-rock!

Style: AOR, hard rock
Label: Columbia
Year: 1984
Home: Britain

Members: Dave King ~ lead vocals
"Fast" Eddie Clarke ~ guitars
Charlie McCracken ~ bass
Jerry Shirley ~ drums
 

Fastway is the post-Motorhead band led by guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke. This is their second album, which got some MTV play. The group went through a few line-ups. This album includes future Flogging Molly vocalist Dave King, & co-founder/ drummer Jerry Shirley. Shirley has played with Alexis Korner, Syd Barrett, John Entwistle, Sammy Hagar & Humble Pie. The bluesy roots of these bands might explain how he turns in more interesting drum parts that really flesh out & drive the songs, versus straight forward typical rock patterns that don't always work with the blues. As a life long blues fan, I find its hard finding a drummer who knows how to rock the blues. I've given so much away about this album with that statement. The band name might say speed metal, but its firmly blues rock. Or, I might describe it as melodic metal with a bluesy strut. Whatever the description - this is hot! Its not flashy hot. More like radio friendly hot with hints of Motorhead & lots of Led Zeppelin, both timeless influences. Others have called frontman King like Robert Plant. Its a legit comparison, though I think due to his phrasing more so than his tone. There are lots of singers who sound a bit too much like Plant, but in this case I think King walks the line on the safe side. He sounds like him, but not always, & in a good way. He's like Plant in the way David Coverdale is like Plant, sorta yes/sorta no, though extremely no today & on most albums. For me its like he's got the best traits of Plant, not the ones everyone imitates. While, with Plant, Clarke is Jimmy Page. Not figuratively as in songwriting partnership, but quite literally. Listen to "Misunderstood" & tell me that doesn't sound like Zeppelin. On the other hand, its amazing how a band can sound so much like another band, yet feel distinct. Fastway uses the influence of Zep, but for me doesn't abuse it or try to be Zep. The power ballad "Hurtin' Me" actually sounds like something Plant solo would do early in his career. It is thick blues with a rock edge. For the record, Plant's "Hurting Kind (I've Got My Eyes On You)" came out years later. If anything, there's just a strong '70's AOR vibe here, of which Zep was often a part of. "Steal The Show" is an example of that with its retro sounding melody. This is also a highlight, not to mention it includes a quasi-bass solo moment. It lives up to its name. "The Strangers" further switches things up with a folksy feel. It absolutely puts the expectations of a power ballad on its head & feels very much like what one might find in the '70's & never in the '80's. Pretty much this whole album breaks expectations & feels like its from another era. This is due to the fact that most '80's bands fell back on glam & metal with big sounds, but Fastway fall back on the blues. They're not faking it either, but going all the way. The call & response blues of "Telephone" you might have heard from some '70's white boy blues band. In the context of the 1984 this feels totally unique. Decades later it sounds refreshing. Sadly, at the time the album found critical success & rightly so, but the band's bluesy attitude never gave them the commercial success they really deserve. In a glam metal world people wanted more of the same, versus something different. That is too bad, as this is a solid & interesting outing. It is way more interesting than what so many of their hard rock peers were doing. The fact it had an all star producer in Eddie Kramer didn't hurt. He produced Carly Simon, Whitesnake, Robin Trower, Buddy Guy, John McLaughlin, Carl Perkins, Peter Frampton, Brian May's Another World, Alcatrazz's Disturbing The Peace, Anthrax's Among The Living, Hendrix's The Cry Of Love, & most notably Ace Frehley's 1978 solo & Trouble Walkin' & Frehley's Comet debut, plus Kiss' Alive!, Alive II, Alive III, Rock & Roll Over, Love Gun.

The World's Greatest Metallica Tribute (album review) ... Compared to this Metallica's 'Lulu' is a thrash classic!

Style: hard rock, heavy metal, trash, industrial, surf, techno, tribute
Label: Tributized
Year: 2004
Home: n/a

Members: Jon Oliva, Eric A.K., Eric Bloom, Billy Milano ~ vocals
Scott Ian, Lemmy Kilmister, Mike Clark, Al Pitrelli ~ guitars
Rob Trujillo, Tony Franklin, Phil Soussan, Bob Balch ~ bass
Dave Lombardo, Aynsley Dunbar, Gregg Bissonette, Vinny Appice ~ drums

Bands include: Agent Orange

Apoptygma Berzerk

Sloppy Seconds

Dee Dee Ramone band

Funker Vogt

Vice Squad

Luciferion

Holocaust

If One Way Street: A Tribute To Aerosmith is producer/guitarist Bob Kulick helming a great tribute album, this is the opposite of the coin & anything but what it's title suggests. Here Kulick takes a couple approaches & none of them work any musical magic creating an album for collectors or diehard fans only. On One Way Street he placed together random rock musicians to do one off recordings. That again occurs here on four of the dozen tracks, while the other tracks are the traditional tribute band approach of bands submitting their cover songs. The success of these will all be dependent on if you like the bands or not. Though, this album is heavily split as the four one off groups have all star line-ups, while the submissions are lesser known bands. While the bands completely take to re-interpreting Metallica versus the one-off line-ups aim more for duplicating or finding a balance between imitation & discovery. This means right next to a heavy metal song is surf or techno synth making a jarring listen. One Way Street is so success because it doesn't do this as all the songs are kept in the same rock mood, all being produced by Kulick. The fact that there's not much of Metallica left in many of these experiments makes it an even more jarring listen. Metallica is a great band whose sound lies on powerful rhythms & a particular mood, but in the hands of others the songs fall apart quickly ... particularly when a band like Apoptygma Berzerk decide to do a dance techno version of "Fade To Black" that makes the song unrecognizable, throws the melody out the window & is pretty much one step away from Erasure but less camp, gay & entertaining. When doing a cover don't kill the recognizable melody line, while replacing a complicated recognizable riff, rhythm or line with something incredibly watered down also should be avoided. If you don't have the skills to at least get the basics of the song than don't fake it. Nor is this approach interesting, as Sloppy Seconds demonstrates with a straight punk take of "Hit The Lights" that dumps anything recognizable about the song. Luciferion also demonstrates with a boring by the book chugging nondescript guitar black/death metal version of "Fight Fire With Me". Agent Orange does a punk-surf version of "Seek & Destroy" which demonstrates that taking the cliched surf riff & putting on a song does not make for something creative or interesting outside of the idea that what would it sound like if Metallica was a surf band. Do surf bands ever get bored playing the same riff over & over again? It all sounds as much alike as Yngwie Malmsteen taking solo after solo. Things get really adventuresome with Funker Vogt who do a goth techno take on "Harvester Of Sorrow" but it's more techno than dark & this is a song that should be more dark than techno. At least it's not Erasure, though not quite Nine Inch Nails. Dee Dee Ramone does a bland "Jump In The Fire". Finally I've found someone who sings like Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones/Faces, but worse. Holocaust does an eight minute "Master Of Puppets" that at least ends the album on a good note, but twelve tracks too late. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery & Holocaust prove that with this particular compilation. Well crafted, though too light weight a guitar solo. The best contribution & only one worth listening to is Vice Squad who turn in an upbeat "Enter Sandman" with an industrial edge, think Powerman 5000. The best part is the toy laser gun sounds during the solos. The only thing that makes this album worth getting is the non-submitted four one-off line-up tracks. Maybe it's the fact that these include some star musicians, but someone was smart enough in each line-up to realize what not to dump in the song & how experimental not to be. Though, none of these songs are great & just for the gimmick of hearing a certain musician. "Nothing Else Matters" is anti-climactic gutless ballad with Jon Oliva of Savatage/Jon Oliva's Pain in a lackluster vocal performance only interesting for how much it sounds like James Hetfield, while this is not a good song to show off Lemmy of Motorhead. Also in this is Fu Manchu guitarist Bob Balch & tour/session drummer Gregg Bissonette most famously of the David Lee Roth band. "Battery" is safe & tame, though its hard to ruin this song, with Metallica's third bassist Rob Trujillo playing alongside drummer Dave Lombardo of Slayer, guitarist Mike Clark of Suicidal Tendencies & vocalist Eric A.K. of Flotsam & Jetsam which would feature future Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. "Whiplash" demonstrates that while James Hetfield is an adequate singer he works for the music at hand, but when you hear someone with a harsher voice interpret the songs ... well, Hetfield suddenly sounds a lot better. Sorry Billy Milano of M.O.D.. While listening to the other musician one wonders is Metallica this monotonous with the guitars & this flat sounding? A poor showing from guitarist Scott Ian of Anthrax, bassist Phil Soussan of Ozzy Osbourne & Billy Idol & drummer Vinny Appice of Black Sabbath/Heaven & Hell. "For Whom The Bells Toll" features with Savatage/Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist Al Pitrelli in one of his more rare heavy metal moments as his career has been more hard-rock that doesn't always push him with the speed or intensity. A decent show, though you can hear Tony Franklin of the Firm trying to spice up the bass line & mold it to his recognizable fretless bass sound. Eric Bloom of Blue Oyster Cult, who Pitrelli toured with for a month, turns in an adequate vocal showing, while acclaimed 70's session drummer Aynsley Dunbar takes up the beats also in a rare metal moment. This album has also been released under the name Metallic Assault

Motorhead - Ace Of Spades (album review) ... If Lemmy is dealing be glad you got the ace of spades!

Style: heavy metal
Label: Sanctuary
Year: 1980
Home: England

Members: Lemmy Kilmister ~ bass/vocals
"Fast" Eddie Clarke ~ guitar/vocals
Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor ~ drums


Every band has one album that towers over all the others from them. Sometimes it's due to its influence, sometimes to a particular sound, sometimes its the time/era of its release, sometimes it's just surrounded by good PR. Often its even not the most inventive or musically the best from the artist. It may even sound completely different than anything else a band has done, such as R.E.M.'s Out Of Time with "Losing My Religion" that came out of nowhere, went everywhere & would never be duplicated. Motorhead's fourth album Ace Of Spades, recorded at the end of 1980, isn't musically that different from the albums that came before, but it ranks largely as the number one album in the Motorhead catalog containing probably the quintessential Motorhead song in the title track. It's hard to deny that status. What makes this album stand out from its predecessors is its in your face feeling with driving rhythms coming out of a trio where quartets have failed at trying to achieve the same sound. Actually, it wouldn't be untrue to say that later line-ups of Motorhead wouldn't be able to get the drive of this album right either. Something magical occurred here with the songwriting & the playing. Everything fell in place & had just enough of a spark to make this the Motorhead litmus test. It's almost sad to consider how many albums have come since, including an acoustic take of the title track, yet its the title track that leads off any greatest hits album from them. Though, part of the magic may also lie in the fact that this album predates thrash & the big metal/80's hair movement, so it finds a unique place historically bridging the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal & the American thrash scene that would follow. Many bands hit 1980 with burn out setting in & membership problems following, struggling with some hits but nothing major or were changing their sound to follow vague & changing trends or were abandoning trademark sounds either to struggle or renew their careers. Motorhead didn't do any of the above, but just churned out what they'd been doing. The result provides an uncluttered & unpretentious alternative to the flashy solos that would soon come into vogue thanks to Van Halen & Malmsteen. Though, there is a problem with the album - the songs are highly repetitive. They blend far too much & being under three minutes generally means everything goes by fast with no real development. It doesn't help that Lemmy never varies his singing much, though few sound as naturally raw as him & like many musicians his lack of range is part of his style. But, even with this bump in the road, metal fans are united in agreeing Ace Of Spades is a must for any metal fan or anyone interested in Motorhead. This line-up of Motorhead is one of the great trios of metal, let alone one of the few from the early days.

Slash ~ Slash (aka self-titled) (album review) ... Slashing through guests to get somewhere!

Style: hard rock
Label: EMI
Year: 2010
Home: n/a

Members: Slash ~ guitars
Chris Chaney ~ bass
Josh Freese ~ drums

Additional: Eric Valentine ~ keyboards
Big Chris Flores ~ keyboards/programming
Taylor Hawkins, Kevin Churko ~ b. vocals
Joe Sandt ~ harpsichord
Deron Johnson ~ organ
Mark Robertson, Alyssa Park, Julie Rogers, Sam Fischer, Grace Oh, Songa Lee, Maia Jasper, Lisa Li ~ violins, Anton Patzner, Lewis Patzner ~ strings
Steve Ferrone ~ drums
Lenny Castro ~ percussion

Guests: Ian Astbury ~ lead vocals/percussion
Izzy Stradlin ~ rhythm guitar
Lemmy Kilmister ~ lead vocals/bass
Kid Rock, Iggy Pop, Chris Cornell, Ozzy Osbourne, Fergie, Myles Kennedy, Andrew Stockdale, Adam Levine, M. Shadows, Rocco DeLuca ~ lead vocals
Dave Grohl ~ drums
Duff McKagan ~ bass/b. vocals


What is wrong with this album? Technically nothing. But, how come after listening to it over & over & over via a couple days I almost have to force myself to get interested? I find myself wondering what happened to the trademarked bluesy riffs I used to love by Slash? & how come the singers don't seem to sound as interesting as I know all of them are? & how come none of the songs I can remember once the album ends? & how come I'm not playing air guitar to Slash as I used to? It's as if Slash has, deliberately or not, laid his Guns N Roses roots finally to rest, only to create some new music that lacks any distinct personality or any real emotional push in any direction. Some critics have talked about how this goes back to the 90's, but for me I can't help but hear the lack of things versus what is here. While none of the participants really do anything to pull the songs in any direction, not even the main player himself I feel. It's like there's a different vocal tone on each song, but it doesn't really mean much as nothing feels distinct. It's a duets album without any interesting duets. While there's a guitarist on all the tracks, Izzy Stradlin' appears on rhythm track on the first track & is the only additional guitarist, but I'm not really that engaged by the playing & it seems to lack any distinctiveness or personality. I can only think of some interesting points to touch upon. "Ghost" with Ian Astbury of the Cult feels like it has too many layers. Is there three guitars here all at once or is it four? What is this trying to be - the new utterly cluttered Aerosmith? While I realize I've been listening to Astbury too much with the reunited Doors versus the Cult as I'm always looking for Jim Morrison in his vocals, but that's not fair to him. The tracks with Ozzy, Lemmy & Iggy Pop feel like Slash is just trying to recreate each player's individual sound versus challenging them with a new setting. None are that interesting lyrically either & like most of the singers on the album the performances aren't so hot & feel more autopilot than anything. Ozzy is great partly because of dirty & stomping guitar licks in his solo albums, but his song here is a weak imitation that is neither dirty nor stomping & imitate the notes without the essence. Which means, it would have been better not to imitate at all. The fact that Slash is a blues-based rocker not a heavy metal guitar makes it feel worse as nobody is thus in their creative zone. Fergie probably made "Beautiful Dangerous" the standout single because she's the token female & something to look at in a video, as it's not really that interesting of a song & suffers from more Aerosmith-esque too many layers that take the focus in too many directions & none are particularly good. Chris Cornell turns in a good performance on "Promise", though it sounds more like his Euphora Morning meets Time over Soundgarden. He's always a great voice, but his solo career just makes us miss the power & majesty of Soundgarden & this guest spot is no exception. No doubts why Slash chose Myles Kennedy to join him on his next album from his two tracks here, the only singer with two songs. He might be the least famous guest but turns in the best tracks & I would have grabbed him too. The only real standout, or at least in terms of what I expected to hear, might be the instrumental "Watch This" with Dave Grohl & Duff McKagan which has hints of classic Slash days. Maybe Slash could continue this duet album theme with a group of instrumentalists on some future release? A guitar fest maybe? Though, that might go in the opposite direction & not be uninspired but too inspired & in your face. Though, I'll pay for Slash & Ronnie Woods in the same song any day given their mutual blues base the sparks would surely fly. What's interesting is there's a bounce with Slash. One great outing (i.e. Guns N Roses), then one iffy outing (i.e. Slash's Snakepit), then one great outing (i.e. Velvet Revolver), then this iffy outing & now his new album with Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators is great. I might be a bit off, but that's a thought that came to me while walking down the sidewalk today trying to figure out what I think of this album after spending days listening. I put off listening to this album for awhile as the idea of Slash's debut solo album got me excited & I didn't even read the reviews to keep my ears virginal. I should have listened earlier & gotten it over with. Sadly.