Category: CD QuickTakes (Page 70 of 149)

Seventh Void: Heaven Is Gone

August 28, 2009 /

Kenny Hickey and Johnny Kelly have two fairly high-profile gigs: they are half of the Goth Metal band Type O Negative and the touring guitarist and drummer for Danzig. Hickey not only plays guitar in Seventh Void but also provides lead vocals on the record. Those expecting a Type O Negative record, go look somewhere else, this is a doom metal record which has much more in common with Down and Black Sabbath than the bizarrely delightful and original sound of Type O’s progressive goth spliced with bits of the Beatles under the influence of Satan. Seventh Void does a very good job of creating a great vibe; they nail the musical soundscape for the genre, but the vocals and the songwriting are sub par. “The End of All Time” stands out with its Sabbath riffing and a bit of a tone change in Kelly’s vocals. Far too often he sounds the same verse after verse, with a higher but raspy vocal delivery that lacks the character and richness that would have improved the material. After the album is over, you may think that the guitar playing was good and the overall sound of the record captured the genre, but you can’t really remember any one particular track. Pantera’s Vinnie Paul (who also owns the record company) and Sterling Winfield do a decent job producing and mixing the record; they just needed better material. It’s not fair to ask, but I wonder if this would have sounded better and more interesting if Peter Steele was singing? (Big Vin Records 2009)

Seventh Void MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Metal

Tim Easton: Porcupine

August 28, 2009 /

After four albums of portraying himself as the sensitive singer/songwriter type, Tim Easton returns to his roots and offers up a kinetic collection of jittery, frayed and unhinged rock ‘n’ roll clearly designed to usurp any more melodic impressions. As its title implies, Porcupine is embossed with a jagged edge and a prickly sensibility, given there’s only two actual ballads to speak of – “Stone’s Throw Away” and “Long Cold Night in Bed” – and they’re a moribund selection at that. “Seventh Wheel” offers the most orthodox attempt at conveying purely catchy choruses, but the rest of the set comes across as a cache of edgy, agitated, insurgent leanings, with at least a pair of tracks – “Get What I Got” and “Baltimore” specifically – suggesting that Easton may have sourced his inspiration from two of rock’s better-known procurers of angst and outrage, John Lennon and Steve Earle, respectively. And speaking of influences, it’s hard to avoid the comparisons churned through “Northbound,” a deft reflection of Creedence Clearwater Revival in early swamp-infested mode. Still, Easton also manages to maintain his knack for pointed – and poignant – observation, via what ultimately gels as the album’s standout selection, “Broke My Heart.” “There are only two things left in this world / Love and the lack thereof,” he sings, oozing a combination of resolve and recognition.
Fortunately, for all its unsettled, topsy-turvy miasma, Easton finds some stability residing at the heart of this foreboding beast.

Tim Easton MySpace page

Americana, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Folk, Melodramatic, Rock

Pint Shot Riot: Round One

August 28, 2009 /

Hailing from the West Midlands and cribbing from the best of britpop, post-punk and pub rock, these
guys are so British they probably shit the Queen. On their debut EP, the aptly titled Round One, the foursome delivers with a trio of tracks that are rawer than Arctic Monkeys and made of pure, Union Jack energy. First there is“Punches, Kicks, Trenches and Swords,” which is the anthem to a violent night out if there ever was one. It’s followed by the equally energetic “Holes” and “Start Digging,” all of which are rowdy stompers tailor made for filled pubs and small clubs full of sweaty maniacs. Those three songs are great, but unfortunately Round One is a six-track EP. The other half consists of slow to mid-tempo acoustic tracks, which are labeled as “acoustic versions,” implying that the plugged versions exist somewhere. These quieter songs are interesting and still upbeat and full of energy, but they’re not the same as the explosive, hard-rocking numbers that accompany them. They sound neutered, as if they removed the energy from them for the sake of artistic diversity. If electric versions of these tracks exist hopefully they’ll get put on Pint Shot Riot’s first proper LP, because diversity is nice, but fast-paced fist-pounding rock is preferable any day of the week. (Life In The Big City Records 2009)

Pint Shot Riot’s MySpace Page

Alternative, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Rock

Vertical Horizon: Burning the Days

August 21, 2009 /

“I’m done with the middle ground,” moans lead singer Matt Scannell on the third track of Vertical Horizon’s latest album, but nothing could be further from the truth. Burning the Days is, in fact, the most relentlessly, punishingly middle of the road record you’ll have the displeasure of hearing all year, a solid block of dull beige mid-tempo ballads that will leave all but the most rock-allergic listeners resorting to desperate measures – such as punching one’s self in the throat, for example – to break up the monotony. Whoever engineered or mastered it deserves a Grammy simply for staying awake; conversely, Rush’s Neil Peart – who plays drums on three tracks and wrote lyrics for the album closer, “Even Now” – is old and successful enough to know better, and should be severely punished for encouraging this kind of senseless, yawning musical horror. Scannell has always had a weakness for adult contemporary mush, but Burning the Days represents a new, nougaty soft frontier for his music; it’s an experiment in blandness that makes MOR dozers such as Chicago’s XXX sound like Sgt. Pepper’s-level works of genius. The bitterest shame of the whole thing is that Vertical Horizon is on its own label again, free from corporate interference, and could have chosen this moment to make a strong artistic statement. For what few hardcore fans the band has left, this might be worth your time and money, but for anyone else, it’s positively deadly. (Outfall 2009)

Vertical Horizon MySpace page

Adult Contemporary, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews

Various Artists: Wizards of Waverly Place

August 21, 2009 /

First, we’ll pause as everyone gets their ‘Disney kids suck’ jokes out of their system. All finished? Good, now let’s move on. Truth be told, we nearly deleted the email promoting this CD on sight, but took a cursory glance, then wrote the rep and said, “Send this pronto.” The reason? Cover versions, cover versions and more cover versions of songs having to do with, surprise, magic. Nothing here transcends the original recordings, of course, but some of them fare better than you might expect. Selena Gomez turns in a rather good performance of Pilot’s “Magic” (it is not coincidence that Gomez, the best singer here, gets the album’s first three tracks), and Meaghan Martin turns in a disciplined, if breathy, performance on the cover of Olivia Newton-John’s “Magic.” The boys, however, do not fare as well. Steve Rushton is completely overpowered by ELO’s “Strange Magic” (though producer John Fields assembles a nifty arrangement), as is Mitchel Musso by “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.” Honor Society’s version of the Cars’ “Magic,” meanwhile, is as fluffy and throwaway as the original, and Drew Seeley’s cover of America’s “You Can Do Magic” is destroyed by an oh-so-trendy 6/8 beat and a pinched vocal. The end result is exactly what you’d expect from a collection of Disney-sanctioned covers: overproduced and kid-friendly, but not without its, um, charms. (Walt Disney Records 2009)

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop

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