Label: Loss Ness Monster Recordings
Year: 2003
Home: n/a
Members: Mark St. John ~ guitars/mandolin/banjo/bazooka/balalaika
Michael Norton ~ Bass
Dave Goode ~ drums
I really liked St. John's playing with Kiss on Animalize. Its a shame he was not able to continue with them. After Kiss he would move through a few bands, do some live recordings & demos, but never have any commercial break through before his untimely death. Magic Bullet Theory was an instrumental album which became his unintended final album. This was produced & completely composed by Mark, with Michael Norton on bass & Dave Goode on drums. Mark also plays the mandolin, banjo, bazooka, balalaika, which says this might get spicy. "AWOL" had previously appeared on the 1999 self-titled EP by the Mark St. John Project featuring Talas vocalist Phil Naro. I reviewed the Vinnie Vincent Invasion saying that I wish he had dumped the singing & just done an instrumental album along the lines of Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani & many of his shredder peers. I found his playing often didn't mesh with the music, & the singing, while at times good, was distracting. Mark turns in exactly what I called for Vinnie to make - guitars, more guitars, one foot in song structure & the other in noodlefest, & just a musical onslaught with little to distract from the reason we are here. There's no attempt to make this look like a band. No attempt to make radio hits. Its all Mark all the time, & a few guys you'll barely notice keeping the beat. Vinnie would end up doing an album like this, but after the fact. Given Mark's reputation I'm shocked it took so long for him to make such an album, but at least he did. The album has two musical sides that one might not expect, though technically the two sides are rotated between each other. There's the electric songs & a collection of acoustic outings. The electric songs all sorta feel the same, like a wild man of guitar gone wild with no limits. They are hard to distinguish. The acoustic bits are really the highlight. Each one covers a different acoustic style. You never hear a guitarist of Mark's caliber go to town on acoustic guitar, or at least not on a handful of very distinct sounding tracks. When I say 'go to town', I mean play so fast that I can't imagine his fingers not being in pain. I didn't know you could play the acoustic this fast without something breaking. First, the electric side. Sadly, summarizing one song will essentially cover the whole terrain. "AWOL" opens the album fast & furious with whammy bar fury Kerry
King would approve of. There is a composition here & not just rambling directionless
playing, though its not the intricate compositions of Joe Satriani
nor the weird acrobatics of Steve Vai. This is more in the Eric Johnson
& Jason Becker category, with as many flourishes as one can fit into
a song under 4 minutes without having to call 911. Michael & Dave
stay pretty out of the way. The drum beat is simple, the bass line
outlining some semblance of a melody through the chords. There is some
underlying guitar rhythms, but more so just there to fill the air than
to craft something interesting to interact with. This is all about Mark flying as fast as possible across the fretboard without pause. There is an
unexpected break where he plays with the harmonics & the band pulls
back. It gives this song some much needed breathing space. All the electric songs pretty much could be described the same. The lead guitar soars without stop, the rhythm section is unnoticeable, song structures are loose. One thing
that can be said is while he's playing its
not all screaming notes above the 12th fret. He's covering the entire
fretboard like Yngwie might, with some re-occurring riffs that provide a
home base to spin off of. This is undoubtedly a guitar player's album.
At times its awesome. Other times its hard to follow. Sometimes its
tedious. But, a few songs into the album & listener burnout is
likely to happen as you swear everything starts to sound alike. It would be great to hear him pause sometimes in the lead part. The lead guitar sounds like one long sound. This goes for every electric song. Its amazing playing, no doubt, but the music lacks tension,
build-up & release. This also goes for every song. Pausing would allow a
little more of the riffs to come through, versus riff going into
noodling, touching on riff, noodle noodle, do something else, then end
the song suddenly. That's another problem. All the songs essentially just stop as though someone in the control booth is waving them to stop. When you've played
every note on the guitar, how do you actually finish? The directionless playing might be fascinating, it means in terms
of overall composition the unexpected dynamic bridges end up being
highlight. They're the part that allows you to hear something different &
allows the song to breathe. A 12 bar bridge shouldn't be the highlight. The fact is none of the songs actually have any climactic moments, so the bridges take on that role. Since the songs go nowhere musically they actually can't climax. "The Lone Gunman" & "Wait No More" are big criminals of this
charge, as they give up rambling for just being endlessly monotonous,
almost like Mark decided to write a traditional song but left off the vocals &
strong melody. This also is evident on the acoustic song "Utopian Trip" which almost
feels like an imitation of Steve Howe, but just with repeating
patterns. Speaking of the acoustic songs: they are the best & most musically interesting parts. A whole album of acoustic songs would have been cool. They suffer from the same speed, monotony & zero climax issues, but without the whammy bar & other effects they feel very different. Also, every acoustic song is different. "Bourbon Street" is an acoustic tour-de-force that sounds like a jazz song played so fast you're sure Mark's fingers are going to slip off the strings. I'm not even sure they didn't a few times. Just two guitars & a basic rhythm jazz-esque section in what is a fascinating musical trip. Though, there's not much of a song here, just like the electric songs. While it ends just as poorly. Thus, it aims for some great heights, but seems to give up just before reaching the top. I find it shocking how it just throws away the endings, like they don't matter. All things said, its my favorite track on the album next to "Baghdad". "Baghdad" goes for a mix of John McLaughlin with
generic Indian & Middle Eastern flavors. Its fascinating, as someone
who loves Indian music, but anyone who knows about the sitar knows that its not always played fast. Mark is absolutely twanging his strings like they are a sitar, though with no real concept of what makes up Indian ragas other than bending some notes. Its not speed, but flavor. Sadly, he has no slow parts, no
contemplative parts, just an obvious imitation. As it is, its just the flavor of Indian & Middle Eastern music, as it doesn't actually follow any of the musical rules. Though, kudos for
trying. Its a fascinating if flawed track. I wish the electric songs had this much creativity. "Utopian Trip" is another acoustic song, but clearly in the power ballad style as electric guitars whammy bar in almost obnoxiously. Power ballad might not be right, given there's a banjo playing part of the rhythm trying to boost it. The title track also incorporates an acoustic guitar into the rhythm for the power ballad approach, but is an under-utilized instrument here. Obviously Mark is trying to explore the instrument as much as possible both as a lead & rhythm instrument, but why couldn't he do this with his electric tracks? "Walking On A Call" ends the album trying for a straight forward style of folk playing. But, by this time you've heard pretty much every trick Mark has: play fast. Its no longer impressive. Its really sad. If he had
some reigning in, more interplay with the other instruments & more focus on song structure I think this would
be an amazing album, versus something that is largely forgotten.
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