Divides - Brokentooth
Female-fronted metal acts shouldn't be newsworthy anymore, but the publicist for Divides felt the need to alert me to the presence of singer CJ Marie when rolling out Divides' debut album Brokenttooth. Of more interest to me is the band's origins in Alaska. Currently based in Portland, Oregon, Divides migrated south from the 49th state for the greater range of opportunities and possible attention they could garner outside of their home state. Good move, y'all, good move, indeed.
Brokentooth proves Divides capable of producing a tremendous range of styles, from the very radio-friendly softer drums and keyboards-led "Sails and Anchor" to the Heart-like crooning over harder guitars of "Echoes Fade" to the almost death metal-heavy "Siren" shouting, screaming, guitar-god riffage and attack-dog drums. Joining CJ Marie on her southward journey from Alaska, guitarist Bryan Calhoun, bassist Joe Jackson and drummer Corey Rainey somehow found Paul Anderson who adds another guitar and some back-up vocals. an absolute necessity for the heavy metal tunes on this collection. Just as Divides crosses genres at will, not all Brokentooth's tunes can be easily categorized either. "Alpenglow" spends a significant portion of its 3:45 softer and slower than most of the songs before bursting forth with straight-up heavy metal, for example.
Since the days when Doro Pesch fronted Warlock and Joan Jett and Lita Ford cranked out Runaways tunes, female-fronted hard rock/heavy metal acts get attention for the fact of the women being there. While the statistics continue to show women as minority participants, it should no longer surprise anyone that they can grind out moshable and melodic guitar-heavy music. Divides proves no different. CJ Marie only adds to the sound, bringing a fresh sound and really driving the sounds the others produce. Each and every one of these tunes would be far different if the lead voice was Charles Marie. That would be very unfortunate, as we are lucky to have Brokentooth and the terrific songs Divides will continue to bring us. Let's all hope Divides remains a name and not an action.
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HotLunch - Slappy Sunday EP
Conceived
in a haze of cannabis, bell-bottoms, long hair and pork chop
side-burns Hot Lunch produces hard rock that bleeds tie-dye and
acid-fueled psychedelic light shows. Hot Lunch's Slappy
Sunday EP
is the ultimate party album for a room full of people who think they
know their rock history. The five tracks on Slappy
Sunday EP
contain enough traces of different acid/psychedelic rock, early heavy
metal and post-Beatles British rock a classic rock fan will lose
themselves for hours digging out the different hints and influences
included.
The
second time I started this review, my initial assessment described
this collection as "what The Doobie Brothers would sound like if
they wanted to share the stage with Black Sabbath and steal
Steppenwolf fans." A few more listens and that assessment lacks
depth and nuance by significant orders of magnitude. In four listens
I found traces of The Who, The Doobie Brothers, Alice Cooper, Kiss,
Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and a ton more. A guitar riff here, a
vocal there, this bass line and that drum solo, each second recalls a
different artist from the days and years after Woodstock, when music
turned darker and the term "heavy metal" became a thing.
Starting
with the title track, "Sunday Slappy" is a stupid name for
a song that really rocks. Vocals come out somewhat Gene Simmons-ish,
while the guitars and bass recall a more Steppenwolf vibe. Loud and
fast, the only reason this would get picked up as a classic rock
poseur is the length; at 2:37, it's about 4 minutes too short for a
true classic rock song. The same can be said of the next two tracks
- not enough of a good thing, and really lacking in the rambling jams
that made the rock of yesteryear so mesmerizingly awesome. Also, DJs
love tunes like "Free Bird" or "Stairway to Heaven"
because they can go out for a cigarette during the incredibly long
tunes. "Expectations" has some identifiable sounds, but I'm
blanking on exactly who I'm hearing. There's definitely some Who in
there, but there's so much more, maybe some Bachman Turner Overdrive.
It's an engaging tune that, like the preceding song, really needs
more space to stretch out and let the guitarist and bassist go nuts
jamming and riffing. "China Banks" totally sounds like The
Doobie Brothers' "China Grove" played a bit faster. About
2/3 of the way into the song, the sound gets more "acid-y"
and again limits itself to under three minutes.
"Pot
of Gold" finds band members Eric Shea, Aaron Nudelman, Rob
Alper, and Charlie Karr giving themselves more room to stretch out
and get all psychedelic. Clocking in at nearly five minutes, there's
enough room to develop the guitar riffs and cut loose with the most
Who sound yet, while "Living the Nightmare" pays undeniable
homage to early Alice Cooper, among others. These San
Francisco-based musicians do nothing to hide their roots, and thank
God for that. This album is a breath of fresh air, even if that air
is hazy with burned pot and patchouli, and a true treat for anyone
who has spent at least 10 minutes listening to a Classic Rock station
in the past year. Now, if they can resurrect the Fu Manchu they'd be
heroes to many.
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DeadstarAssembly - Blame It On The Devil
I
have spent more than a little time bemoaning the state of metal
vocals these days, being that it seems the majority of bands look for
vocalists who sound more like somebody moving a desk in the room
above you than an actual singer. I call it "growler metal"
because that's the major characteristic I can hear. Deadstar
Assembly, has a growler vocalist, but instead of being an incoherent
mess, Dearborn is way closer to Dickie Barrett of Mighty Mighty
Bosstones than Lamb of God or Lacuna Coil. Best "growler metal"
I've heard in a bloody long time.
Hailing
from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Deadstar Assembly's Blame
it on the Devil
brings everything that's great about heavy metal to the party -
killer guitars, a drummer with about thirty-eleven different speeds,
a bassist with the chops to keep up with everyone else, and a
vocalist who is definitely metal, but also communicates the lyrics as
passionately as anyone, without resorting to the soaring falsetto of
hair metal or the classical notes of Bruce Dickinson. There's also
the electro-digital hints that keep the sound as fresh as the smell
of burnt rubber on pavement. It's not exactly unique, but it's close
and it's the next best thing: high quality and listenable repeatedly.
This is a fun album if you're a metal fan.
"Blame
it on the Devil," the title track brings the heavy early and
often, while "Overdose" begins with definite flavors of
AC/DC'c "Thunderstruck" before settling into the signature
melodic crunching and growling that saturates this record.
Mystical/horror
imagery permeates this record, reflecting not only the usual tropes
of metal since Black Sabbath chose the name Black Sabbath, Vincent
Furnier decided to name himself after the witch Alice Cooper, and the
PMRC decided to do its best to freak out over "dangerous"
lyrics. From the album/opening track name, through "into the
Light," "Will Not Die," "Dirtier Than Sin"
to the final track, "Devil's Reprise" this album is a
veritable playlist of everything Bible Belt-types hate.
Deadstar
Assembly displays serious musical chops, from DreGGs's guitar licks,
to drummer Kriz D.K.'s percussive mastery, and the rhythms provided
by The Dro and Mubo on bass and keyboards respectively. DSA fails to
help reverse the sad decline of the guitar solo, keeping their style
closer to Godsmack and Papa Roach at their heavy best than Skid Row
and Iron Maiden. This shouldn't detract from the enjoyment of the
record, but I'd sure love to see more bands let their players soar
some during the tunes.
Deadstar
Assembly's Blame
it On The Devil
cranks and could easily find space in literally any metal fan's
collection.
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Sumo Cyco
Lost
in Cyco City
In
response to the question no one anywhere ever asked, "What would
it sound like if Avril Lavigne joined hed(pe)?" comes Sumo Cyco
and their debut album Lost
in Cyco City,
a blistering and vicious assault as awesome as anything released by
Powerman 5000, hed(pe), or Limp Bizkit at their fiercest and most
productive. Sever's vocals make music already mind-numbingly awesome
sublimely awesomer.
The
Avril Lavigne comparison comes easy and early. Sever's vocals sound
remarkably similar, but Sumo Cyco crunches harder and longer than
anything Lavigne has produced in ages. Some of the Lavigne attitude
shows up, but very little of Lavigne's relationship tropes appear. A
significant amount of boasting and aggression do show up in tunes
like "Fighter" and "Like a Killer," but the level
of violence in Sumo Cyco's lyrical content puts anything in Lavigne's
library to shame. Despite the inherent threats in "You won't
survive it/Let's start a riot!/Cry cry cry cry Murder/Cry cry cry cry
Murder" the tunes come across as ridiculously anthemic with
catchy hooks and lyrics that stick in your skull long after the
album's ended.
Leaving
the comparison behind, a look at Sumo Cyco's Lost
in Cyco City
on its own merits still leaves me in awe. I am in love with this
album, from the vocals of former pop star Skye Sweetnam (now Sever)
to the power drumming of Andy Joseph (aka The Wolf), the driving bass
of Ken Corke (Thor) and the melodic supporting rhythm guitar work by
Matt Drake (MD). Not one song in this album lets up, and the only
time to catch a breath is between tracks.
Lyrics
like "Condition is dire/like a guillotine wire./All my
desire/Come on fuel my fire" don't always make a ton of sense
beyond their poetic sound (guillotines have ropes, whereas garrotes
depend on wire for their impact, and "garroting wire" fits
the space, but I guess more people know guillotine than know
garrote.) It must be remembered, however, that the line "I pack
a chainsaw/and skin your ass raw" from "Break Stuff"
by Limp Bizkit makes about as little sense and that tune was one of
their biggest hits.
Before
founding Sumo Cyco as an effort to gain more control of her career
and move to a more rock/punk/metal sound Sever recorded two pop
albums of a style and quality to earn her a spot as opening act for a
Britney Spears tour. Personally, I'm a much bigger fan of her
current sound with its reliance on strings and drums, high-quality
production values and very little reliance on digital wizardry and
synthesizer. Given the probable trajectory of a pop career, the move
to punk and metal assures Sever/Sweetnam a longer career, more
independence and more artistic integrity.
Given
the quality of Lost
in Cyco City,
I can only hope that career, independence and integrity continues,
pushing Sever to keep punching out singles and albums. We'll all
benefit, and maybe Britney Spears will take some advice and do the
same - it would certainly be better entertainment than watching her
shave her head.
The
Grape and the Grain
At
Home EP
For
those who didn't read my previous review on The Grape and the Grain's
self-titled full length debut album [editor, please make any part of
the preceding a clickable link to the referenced review], it's
probably time you did so, then come back for this. All four songs on
this EP are acoustic versions of "The Hudson," "Burnt
By The Sun," "The Devil and the DEA," and "If God
is Love" from that disc.
While
the tunes are definitely recognizable as acoustic versions of their
electrifried dopplegangers, the different pace and mellower vibe give
these tunes an entirely different feel. "The Devil and the
DEA," an story-song about a DEA raid changes tone remarkably.
The original version's urgency felt frenetic, like a video soudtrack
for an episode of COPS, playes in real time; whereas the acoustic
version's speed flows like a pot-hazy memory. More than unplugged
versions of the tunes, these re-tooled tracks achieve a radically
different feel.
The
original disc rocked loud, hard and in your face. Compared to the
rush-hour grip of the original "Burnt By The Sun" and "If
God Is Love" their At
Home
counterparts enjoy a Sunday drive through wine country. This
comparison pre-supposes a lack of hatred for your commute, of course.
As an electrified track, "The Hudson" doesn't quite have
the same in-your-face pace of the other tracks covered here, thus its
acoustic twin becomes really mellow and bluesy.
These
four unexpected sonic gems add a new flavor to the band as well as
their original tunes. The At
Home
EP should win some more fans for a band that needs to break big.
This acoustic rendering of tunes sheds light on why
acoustic versions exist in a way other "unplugged"
collections fail.
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Two Albums, One Concept, All Metal
Larry Rogers
Periphery - Juggernaut Alpha/Juggernaut Omega
Conceived of as a two-disc concept album,
Periphery's Juggernaut Alpha
and Juggernaut Omega
cover a tremendous amount of ground musically, lyrically and
temprally. Temporally, the seventeen songs of these two albums clock
in at nearly and hour and a half. Musically, Periphery demonstrates
tremendous range musically, ranging from quiet electronic passages to
the heaviest of hardcore thrash. My only quibble with the albums
(besides the decision to sell them as two separate albums instead of
one pricey double-album) is the lack of "connective tissue"
sounds or dialogue that would make the story more clear. It worked
spectacularly well for Queensryche's Operation:
Mindcrime, and Alice Cooper's recent Along
Came a Spider incorporated several, making
an album that could have simply been another batch of Alice Cooper
shock-rock tunes became a story of murder and redemption.
Juggernauts
Alpha and Omega,
like One-Eyed Doll's Witches
really could have used a bit of this.
Enough criticism. Periphery's spectacular range
emerges within the first two tracks; from the quiet opening of "A
Black Minute" (a feature of recent concept albums, it seems) and
strong melodic metal to the screaming thrash of "MK Ultra"
(a reference to the hopefully defunct CIA program aimed at developing
and perfecting mind-control through drugs and other means.) Deeper
tracks reveal influences such as Linkin Park and their
contepmoraries, as the sound veers between melody and thrash with
such force as to demand the strictest attention if the story is to be
sussed out; bring your ritalin, as much as I enjoyed the experience,
I could not really drag much of a story out of the songs. Between
the album art and some of the snatches of lyrics I could latch onto,
it seems to be a sci-fi tale incorporating some psychological
exploration of the self. The press release announcing the albums
says that Alpha
focuses on backstory and character development, while Omega
"focuses on some pretty serious and gut-wrenching events[.]"
Despite my difficulty in grasping the concept part of this, I found
much to appeciate and enjoy in these two albums. Where "Alpha"
and "22 Faces" display the band's debt to Linkin Park and
Papa Roach, the instrumental "Four Lights" demonstrates
that Slayer is also among Periphery's muses. The set's least
thrashing song -"Priestess"- includes
classical/Santana-inspired guitar and earnest singing; easily the
most radio-friendly tune of the seventeen. Almost every guitar solo
on the records is more classical than classic. Obviously a result of
the guitarist's training, and it gifts the tunes a rather unique
sound. I'm much more used to the Yngwie Malmstein/Randy
Rhodes/George Lynch school of guitar solos, and I generally find
classical guitar to be very somnolescent, but in this environment the
sound fits the mood quite well (not to mention the excessive rhythm
guitar and bass pretty much preclude most notions of sleep.)
Periphery's full spectrum of sound comes from a full
six full-time members, including three (3!) guitarists, the requisite
bass and drums, and a vocalist who apparently does both the crooning
and the screaming. Guitarists Misha Mansoor, Jake Bowen and Mark
Holcomb deliver the sonic punch, however Mansoor seems to be the
lead, having been a Guitar World
cover boy. Bassist Adam Getgood and drummer Matt Halpern have also
appeared on the covers of Bass Player
and Modern Drummer
respectively. Vocalist Spencer Sotelo rounds out the group with his
incredible range. Obviously, the members bring exceptional skills to
the enterprise, showing that more than garage band enthusiasm helped
to shape Juggernaut's
two discs of metal. Juggernaut Alpha
and Omega may be
this year's ultimate metal album, bringing together so many
influences, sounds, and moods in such a dense collection that no one
who loves metal can afford to ignore these albums.
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