| CD REVIEW F5 |
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Band : F5 For those among you who don’t know, F5 is the Heavy Metal band formed by former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson. Upon his departure from that megalomaniac act in 2002, Ellefson happened to produce demo recording work for two local bands called Numb (from Minnesota) and Lifted (from Arizona). Dale Steele was vocalist for the first (had also been frontman to G.I.V.E. and Sick Speed), while guitarists Steve Conley and drummer Dave Small played in the second. They all stayed in touch, and in early 2003 Small invited Ellefson to come over and jam a bit with him and Conley. So they did, and within a couple of days wrote half a dozen songs which they put to demo…which was then sent over to Steele, who put his vocals on it and sent it back! Everyone agreed that they had the makings of something really good here, so Steele moved to Phoenix and the quartet continued to write more songs. Soon after the quartet came to an understanding that they needed an extra guitarist, and through Conley they invited John Davis in on the sessions. F5 was now a fact. From the first jam session to the finishing touches of the demos, only 3 or 4 months had passed, and the quintet now sent out the demoes to several possible labels. Japan’s JVC were the first to react positively, and would soon be joined by others (for the European and American territories). The band continued to write and ended up recording a total of 30 demo tracks, from which they chose 12 songs which were to be recorded during April/ May 2004 with producers RyanGreeneand Steve Smith. A Drug For All Seasons was eventually released in the Asian territories during July 2005, a month later through Mascot in Europe, and another month later through Cleopatra for the North-American territiories. F5 toured quite extensively in support of the album, and in March 2006 a video for the track “Dissidence” was aired worldwide on MTV specialist show Headbangers Ball. November 2006 saw the release of the band’s Live For All Seasons DVD, this containing footage of the band on the road, on stage as well behind the scenes. In between, Ellefson did the “odd job” and project thing. In early 2005 he’d already started a new band named Enemy Of God with singer Todd Barnes (of 13-A), guitarist Peter Scheithauer (of Pushed, Stream, Belladonna, and Killing Machine repute), and drummer Jon Dette (formerly of Slayer, Testament, and Pushed). By April Dette had been replaced by Stet Howland (of W.A.S.P.), the bandname changing to Temple Of Brutality. Another side project in that period was to form Christian worship band Symphony In Red with Billy Smiley of Whitehead. In August 2005 he played a couple of shows with Soulfly, as Bobby Burns was forced to deal with a family emergency (in September 2006 he was called on again for the completion of Soulfly’s North-American dates, due to Bobby Burns having suffered a mild stroke). In January 2006 it was announced that he (as well as his former Megadeth rhythm section collegue Jimmy Degrasso) had joined Ronnie Montrose’s live band, and was featured on the latter’s Ronnie Montrose And Friends: 10 x 10 album. Ellefson was also credited as guest musician on The Alien Blakk’s album Modes Of Alienation (one I reviewed…I think). In June of 2006 F5 allied with Marc Rizzo and Alex Skolnick Trio for a brief tour along the East Coast. In 2007, shortly after finishing another tour, Dave Small left. He was duely replaced by drummer Jimmy Degrasso. In October 2007 the band announced they were preparing to enter the studio again with producer Ryan Greene! If, like me, you hadn’t made the acquaintance with F5’s music yet, let me advice you at forehand to leave your preconceived ideas about how it “should” sound behind…don’t even think it’s got a ny close resemblance to Ellefson’s past! To start with, Steele’s voice is completely different from Mustaine’s, having at once a slight nasal and hoarse quality which gives him an awkward but unique vocal signature, and which takes a little time getting accustomed to. However, you’ll probably be won over by the end of the 4th track on this album! As mentioned in the first paragraph of this article, the music can be categorized as Heavy Metal, but one of a kind which combines elements of both contemporary and traditional Heavy Metal (the kind with a slight Progressive touch): on the one side the riffs indeed sound modern enough with a lot being played on the low side of the sound spectrum (may even be the guys use a down-tune pedal to include that special bit of crunch there), on the other side a more traditional (say even Classic Rock) sound comes through in a lot of the solos. The combination works in quite an effective way to make for a rather catchy whole, which should be appreciated by fans of both traditional and contemporary Heavy Metal alike…and then some! At least, that’s how I see things personally. If you feel you fall in either of these categories of music fans, be sure to check out myspace.com/f5thebandaz, where 3 songs off the first album are posted alongside 3 off the new one. If it seems to you that the band took long enough between starting recordings and the release of the album, you should know that in the US it was already issued through OarFin Dist., Inc on August 19 of last year! Additional trivia? In Dec. 2008 Ellefson announced he would be touring Chile (for 5 gigs) in January of 2009 in a band called Hail, where he was to be paired to singer Tim Owens (yep, the former frontman of Judas Priest, Beyond Fear, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Iced Earth), guitarist Andreas Kisser (of Sepultura) and drummer Jimmy Degrasso. As of mid January, no news of upcoming F5 live work yet! 90/100 Tony. |