| CD REVIEW Powerage Records Special: Endeverafter - Lethargy - Pride Tiger - Viking Skull |
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Powerage Records Catch-Up Special Why a label special, you may ask yourself? Well, just recently our editor-in-chief was logged onto the British label’s iPool, so the material was made available to us only a short while ago. On top, distribution of these album were so far restricted to the UK, even if promotional copies were sent out to most of the major Rock magazines outside the British isles. Psysical distribution of these records in Europe only starting this Summer (through the additional intervention of the Candlelight label), it seemed only fitting to give the albums some attention…which is what I’m gonna do now, although in a somewhat deminished capacity when compared to my usual way of working! Allied to Classic Rock and Plastic Head Distribution, I guess it’s only fair to suppose that the idea to back the label was “suggested” to the British magazine by their esteemed Rock journalist Geoff Barton. You see, written history has it that he neerly had a coronary when he first heard Wales-based Lethargy’s 2005 self-financed debut album Road Out Of Nowhere. In other words, he was impressed, and may very well have been pivotal in the band’s signing to the new label. Possibly, the label felt they first needed to open procedures with an already renowned band, and therefore chose to contract UK Stoners/ Doomsters Viking Skull. Eventually, both albums would be released in November 2008 as the label’s first records! I give you their reviews in chronological order, according to catalog number. Band : Viking Skull Viking Skull was formed in 2003 by singer Roddy Stone, guitarists Frank Regan and Darren Smith, bassist Waddie, and drummer Gordon Morrison. Drawing influence from Black Sabbath and adding shards of AC/DC, WASP, Motörhead, The Who, Kiss and Thin Lizzy for good measure, they started playing at local jam nights (because it was free and each song played earned you a pint) around Corby, Kettering and Rothwell. Soon the venues they played at started getting packed with people asking for CDs, so the band recorded and mixed their 6-track demo Chapter One and released it in 2004 under the Grand Union label. The release brought the band rave reviews in the British press (among which an unprecedented and unrepeated 11/10 score in Metal Hammer magazine), and support slots for the likes of Dio, HIM, Sum 41, Wednesday 13, Alice Cooper, Brides Of Destruction, as well as a spot at the 2004 Download festival. However, the sudden success also had a down side, as Regan opted out of the busy touring schedule (in the midst of the Wednesday 13 tour), leading to Stone also having to pick up the guitar. Undaunted, the remaining quartet went on, and by popular demand recorded their debut full-length effort Born In Hell, which got released in November 2005 to worldwide rave reviews. Around this time they caught the attention of Jess Margera of cKy and his brother Bam (a well-known skate video artist and popular/ influencial Vee-Jay at MTV), whom started supporting the band vogorously during his Jackass show. Up came more heavy duty touring in Europe with the likes of cKy, Clutch and Hayseed, a renewed attendance at the 2006 Download festival, and many own headline tours, but things came to a grinding halt at the end of the European cKy tour in August 2006 when after 3 weeks of sleepless nights and a bottle of absynthe (provided by Margera) caused the band members to nearly kill each other. As a result the band split up, with Morrison concentrating completely on his other band Raging Speedhorn, Smith leaving music all together to get a proper job, Waldie closing himself behind a stereo chain playing Whitesnake albums over and over again, and Stone locking himselg up in his flat…living on a diet of beans on toast, but continuing to write music. A couple of months passed before Margera heard about the split and called Stone to find out what had happened, and hearing about his part of the split he felt duely guilty…so he offered his services on drums to keep the band going. Stone managed to get Waldie into coming to join him again, and convinced an old friend by the name of Jules Cooper into playing lead guitar. Together, they travelled to Philadelphia to record Chapter Two, which had several guest appearances (Fireball Minestry’s Reverend Jim, Brandywin Eel of Gnarkill, and cKy’s Chad Ginsberg among others) and was released on Filthy Note Digital in 2007 with a limited CD release in the USA. They also shot a video for the track “Blackened Sunrise”,directedby BamMargera (rumoured to be his fastest shot and cheapest video he ever made, but with excellent result – I know, because I happen to have reviewed a compilation Mr. Margera released during 2007). So Viking Skull came back with a new album in November of 2008, and according to the label’s promo talk, finding them at their best with matured songwriting. Funny that none of the reviews I’ve come across thus far mentions that the album is after all only just over 37 minutes long containing 9 songs, of which I immediately recognized one (namely “Hair Of The Dog”) as a Nazareth cover. With the album closing “Drink” being a rather simple piano-plus-tambourine boozers song (with quite a bit of repetition in it, and sounding like it was just something that happened to be recorded with the mikes on half power – sound quality ain’t too good), that leaves only 7 actual songs. But what’s offered otherwize (hey, I’m shure a lot of people won’t even mind that great Nazareth track being raped by Stone’s raspy voice – personally, I prefer the original, and anyone knowing that mùst be of a same mind, for sure?) is of truly excellent quality! Check out the band’s Myspace page to find out more about the band and to have a listen. Whatever’s posted there (sorry, I failed to check) will be representative enough! At any rate, and in spite of my earlier negative comment, had this album come to my desk when it was released the first time…it would’ve made my year-lists, yes indeed! 98/100 Band : Lethargy Not to be confused with the ‘90s New York based Technical Death Metal act by the same name (which left us only 3 demos, a 1994 split release with Big Hair, and their only 1996 full-length It’s Hard To Write With A Little Hand), this Lethargy is based in South Wales’ town Neath, and formed by 4 youngsters (all in their late teens at the time) with an amazing technical knowhow at what they do and a musical influence pallate that includes both bands of old and new: Alice In Chains, Big Wreck, Black Sabbath, Dream Theater, King’s X, Led Zeppelin, Manic Street Preachers, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Silverchair, and Soundgarden…to name but a few. Their debut album, released in late December 2004, went on to become one of Classic Rock’s top 20 albums for 2005, and this (along with additional praise from elsewhere) encouraged the band to work on their sound even more, writing and re-writing new tracks. Then, renowned A&R man Derek Oliver introduces the band to American producer David Prater (whom he already hired to work on the Dream Theater album Images And Words) in late 2006, and Prater was so overwhelmed by the band’s musical prowess and ability to breathe life into an old formula that he immediatelly agreed to fly over to Wales and record the band’s new album at the Mwnci studio in Penbrokeshire during a 4-week session…later also mixing the album somewhere in South America. The band’s excellent Hard Rock is laced with Grunge, the whole kept melodic overall and topped with great lead & backing (ofter rather harmonic) vocals, and somehow Lethargy managed to give the named influences a twist of their own. The guys use socio-political issues for their lyrics, having been born, raised and then matured with the hardships of living in a town which has since long known its better days! The reviews I’ve read about the album are somewhat controversial. On the one side you’ve got people feeling something is still amiss in the songwriting department, with the band’s concentrating somewhat on the instrumental aspect of their music instead of the vocals…asking the question whether the fans will really need more of the same (claiming all Lethargy bring is more of what already is). Others have clearly listened more closely (or have a broader taste in music), recognizing the remeniscences to Zep, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, depending on the track one listens to…and aknowledging the fact that Lethargy gives it all a twist of its own, that a large portion of the songs are evidence of good taste and talent, that the nicest thing about Lethargy is the fact that although their music is rooted quite deeply, it never sounds old-fashioned! If that ain’t controversial enough? I suppose it all depends on the listener’s personal tastes (although I would think that a good Rock journalist would at least try to put his subjective appraisal aside somewhat when reviewing an album (ach well, some people in the business are simply failed musicians with a grudge on their shoulder, I suppose), so check it out for yourselves at myspace.com/lethargymusic, where the band posted 4 of the album’s more energetic songs. Regretfully, that doesn’t show you the more sensitive side of this band, which displays itself most clearly on the great album closing ballad “Fragile Crystal Dream” (only instruments used here are piano, violin-like keyboards – atmospheric keyboards being used occasionally in other songs as well – and a bit of cello…topped by the band’s great lead-and-backing vocal harmonies). Another example of a somewhat calmer song (and should you be able to have a listening session at your favourite record store, be sure to have a listen), is the somewhat dark “I See Man’s End In His Construction”. Nice album! 88/100 Band : Pride Tiger First band on this roster from out of the UK, Vancouver (Canada) based Pride Tiger has the peculiarity of having been formed by 3 former members of Retro Metal act 3 Inches Of Blood (singing drummer Matt Wood and guitarists Sunny Dhak – leads – & Bob Froese – also responsible for keyboards & backing vocals) and an ex-member of S.T.R.E.E.T.S. (bassist/ backing singer Mike Payette). Dhak, Froese & Payette were living in a “crazy old dirty Punk house” when they met with Wood (at the time playing with Goadsblood), and it was there that they marvelled on each other’s (vinyl) record collections containing many of the classic ‘70s Hard Rock acts. From marvelling about the music (which was still their favourite in spite of each of them liking what they did), they came to the idea of starting a band together, and Dhak threw himself up as the main composer of the music. They were thinking about adding a lead singer, but then decided to keep things among themselves, the drummer jumping in on lead vocal duties as well! They started playing parties in 2005, and after disentangling themselves from their respective bands in early 2007, they recorded a 9-track, self-produced CD called Wood, Dhak, Froese, Payette (already including the very nice “White Witch Woman Blues”, which would later also be included on their official debut), and started attracting attention from the music business. By Summer, they were signed to EMI Music Canada, and after some phone calls found Matt Hyde (previously worked with the likes of Slayer, Monster Magnet and Fu Manchu) to be the most fitting producer for their major label debut. His comment was to have the lead singer sing more, and simplify some things in the music. October 2007 saw the start of a 2-month session in Los Angeles’ Sunset Lodge, where the band also made the final touches to 7 songs (including “56 Days”, “Fill Me In”, and “A Long Way Down”) they hadn’t finished yet, with Hyde’s help. The result, the self-titled 13-track debut album of the band, was eventually released in Canada in June 2008. Containing only 12 of those, The Lucky Ones is actually a slimmed-down version of same, originally issued in the UK during November 2008, and now distributed throughout Europe thanks to the additional aid of Candlelight. Of course, the album was already sent out to some of the bigger European magazines earlier, which means I have a couple of reviews as reference. What with the singer using a slightly more nasal approach and vocal harmonies in songs such as “Fill me In”, “The Lucky ones”, “Forget Everything”, and the album closing “A New Jones” in combination with Thin Lizzy’s typical rhythm/lead guitar interplay, Pride Tiger has had plenty of comparisons to that band…but I feel it needs to be said that Wood doesn’t quite make Phil Lynott’s quite correctly. In fact, his voice is of a slightly higher octave, and also he doesn’t quite have the same feel for vocal lines as the deceased Thin Lizzy frontman. Personally, I kinda get an awkward feeling when listening to the album too many times in a row due to Wood’s vocal styling on those “other” songs With the music the comparison doés stand though, even if the band manages also gives the whole a touch of their own! At myspace.com/pridetiger, you’ll only find two tracks to listen to (the album title track and one titled “Distractions”, which I didn’t find on this 12-track version of the album), which ain’t a lot (wish you could’ve heard that short acoustic instrumental titled “Wizard’s Council”), but is enough to give you an idea what these Canucks are about! According to the label info, the band started on an 18-month tour in support of the album following its release…but at their Myspace page I first found out that Payette had been exchanged for one Aaron McHattie. Then, there’s the weird biography bit which simply states “Pride Tiger Started in 2005. Pride Tiger is done.”…and no mention of any tour dates. Would this mean the band has folded al together, I wonder? 87/100 Band : Endeverafter This Hard Rock outfit was formed during 2004 in Sacramento (California) with a line-up including mastermind Michael Grant (lead vocals, lead guitar) and his friends Kristan Mallory (rhythm guitar, been pals since 5 years before), Tommi Andrews (bass, friends since 3 years) and Austin Sinclaire (drums), a line-up which was determined to make it big in the music business. Since then, they released an EP titled Blood On The Stage, relocated too Las Vegas (Nevada), and replaced Sinclaire by Grant’s best friend by the name of Eric Humbert. EndeverafteR also signed to the Razor And Tie label, who released the band’s debut album Kiss Or Kill in October 2007. Along the line, they were supported by the likes of Brett Michaels and Pete Wentz, and by the time they were about to unleach their debut video clip (for the track “Baby, Baby, Baby”), they had caught the public’s eye: a behind-the-scenes look at the making of that video was N°1 at YouTube with almost 500,000 views in one day (it has continued to be viewed at a pace of millions a day since). Not really surprising, because the band combines the best of ‘60s to ‘90s Stadium Rock with big chorus lines and great harmony vocals! Whether you’re listening to the more emotional power ballad “Next Big Thing”, the Motley Crüe-inspired “Tip Of My Tongue”, or the darker “Road To Destruction”, you can’t stop yourself from knodding your head to the simply great guitar work, the somewhat thrashy drums, and the great music/vocals combination…and after only a couple of sessions you might even find yourself singing along with the anthemic songs! So, no wonder Powerage eventually took it upon themselves to spread the word about these guys in the UK (and now the rest of Europe). Took ‘em some time to get there, but then that’s a remark I’ve made before. We can only be thankful for the fact that they indeed did, right? Although I dó have to admit that after several listening sessions my attention started to wander elsewhere. At myspace.com/eneverafter, you’ll not only find 5 tracks off the album to listen to, but also the song “No More Words”, which the band apparently contributed to a compilation titled Jeff Hardy’s Theme Off WWE, The Music – Vol. 8. Obviously, the band has, since the US release of their album, been touring in support of it, and they’ve even moved on, Grant writing new songs for the band’s sophomore album, which is expected early next year. In between, Grant was also invited to produce and play on an album for Brandon Tyler. Also, they shot a video in the hot Nevada desert for this album’s track “Next Best Thing”, directed by one Ray Schlogel. It got its premiere on June 30th of last. 84/100 Tony. |
