XIII MINUTES "Obsessed"

(c) 2019 Rottweiler Records

1. Sibling Rivalry
2. Victim-Less
3. Self Portrait
4. Machaira
5. Blue Flame
6. Obsessed
7. Fragile
8. This Life
9. Who Told You
10. Water Vice
11. Out Of Time
12. When You Have Suffered
13. Reckless Love

Michael Rowley--Vocals
Aaron Smith--Guitars
Thomas Wheat--Bass
Jamie Kucinski--Drums

Additional Musicians
Kyle Simpson--Piano, Keys, Programming
Jessica Wheat--Female Vocals

XIII Minutes.  (That's 13 Minutes for you non-Roman numerals folks.)  According to the band's bio page, every 13 minutes someone in America dies in a car wreck. Every 13 minutes an American commits suicide.  Every 13 minutes a woman dies of breast cancer.  It also says that 13 minutes is the time between when a tornado siren is sounded and the tornado hits.  I didn't do any independent research on those facts and figures, as I trust the band wouldn't put out a bunch of misinformation that someone would fact check them on.  Thirteen Minutes is also a surprisingly good independent movie about an actual assassination attempt on Hitler in 1939 (I'm a history teacher and a WWII buff...sue me!).  So with all of this information about 13, should it be any surprise that it took all of about 13 minutes for me to absolutely start to really dig this record?!  Well, it may not have taken even that long.

I have never denied the fact that I am a fan of metalcore...when it's good.  Personally, I LOVE big, stinking heavy breakdowns and hardcore vocals, especially if they are combined with clean vocals as well.  I also love big, fat, chugging rhythm guitar riffs and thunderous drums.  So, when I stumble across such a band being hyped as possessing such qualities, it is with great excitement that I usually dive headfirst into said band's album to see if they are worth the hype.  Let me tell you, XIII Minutes is worth it.

The album kicks off with "Sibling Rivalry", and immediately, it is evident to me that XIII Minutes is not your standard metalcore band, although that is what I have heard them categorized as.  For one, there is a smoothness to the riffing that belies a bit of the genre.  Guitarist Aaron Smith has a definite feel for this style of guitar work, and his rhythm riffs are tight and aggressive throughout the record, but they don't contain a lot of that distorted grind that a lot of metalcore bands seem to be incorporating lately.  That's a good thing on Smith's part!  The drums from Kucinski are also really good, punishing on the bottom end and not overly snare-happy, which some bands seem to be doing now.  Again, a good thing!  To me, there is definitely a modern hard rock style that is infused with metalcore elements, but if you are thinking that you will be getting old school Demon Hunter or a band like For Today, think again.  That is not what XIII Minutes is about.  On opener "Sibling Rivalry", all of the elements I previously noted come together really well musically, giving Rowley a solid foundation upon which to sing/snarl.  Rowley's strength is definitely in the ability he has to separate the growly/snarly side of his vocals, which are not dissimilar to what Demon Hunter uses, from his clean vocals, which are far better than what I hear from other bands; he never drifts into emo whining or anything like that.  As with a lot of modern hard rock/metal, the guitar solo isn't overly flashy, but it shows competence and understanding for the genre, with a lot of speed up and down the frets.  There are also some programmed effects in the mix here, but nothing that is overly obvious or overpowering.  Give it a listen here:

"Victim-Less" is an older song that had been previously released as a single, but XIII Minutes chose to incorporate it here.  Aggressive from the jump, "Victim-Less" is one of the more brutal songs on the track, with Rowley spending nearly as much time in full-growl mode as he does with his clean vocals.  There is a harsh breakdown with some tough, bottom-end rhythm riffing, then Smith goes off on one of his high-speed fret runs that pop up all over the place on this record.  Musically, XIII Minutes is very tight, and it really shows on a track like this, where the tempo changes and the stop-starts near the end can start to sound really sloppy if everyone isn't on the same page.  Fortunately, that is not the case here, and Kucinski's drums and Smith's bass are a big part of that crisp, razor sharp edge that is necessary to execute these tempo changes.

"Self Portrait" is an older track that was incorporated here, and while not a bad song, it definitely is not representative of XIII Minutes now.  The track starts off with a walking bass line, with the rest of the band joining in on a rhythm that really can only be described as "bouncy".  An odd effect is used on the first half of the guitar solo here, which makes it sound a bit like the guitar is being played underwater, and it doesn't really go with the track.  Rowley's vocals are exclusively of the harsh variety on this track, which seems almost comical when compared with the jangly nature of the track.  I've been told the band has moved on from this song in their set-lists, and to be honest, I can see why.  There is far superior music elsewhere on this album.

"Machaira" is another older song that also finds its way onto Obsessed.  Musically, the song is a bit more straight forward metal, albeit with a chunkier bottom end than most metal today.  Rowley's vocals again spend a lot of time in the harsher mode, although he does slip into his cleaner delivery in various spots.  One thing that is obviously different, at least to my ears, is the maturation of Kicinski's drumming on the newer material.  While definitely not bad, the drums on "Machaira" are pretty much just straight up rhythm-and-tempo time keepers and lack the flair that shows up in newer material, such as the next track, "Blue Flame".

"Blue Flame" is an example of a track where I really like the clean vocals that Rowley uses.  His clean voice takes on something of an alternative rock sound, while his growls remain in that Demon Hunter mode.  Heavy and chunky, the rhythm guitars are a big presence here, with a tight chugga-chug, chugga-chug tempo that is bolstered by the bass and drums, providing a really solid bedrock or the track to build upon.  Another rapid fire guitar solo scorches through the mid-section of the track, and overall I would have to say this is one of the best tracks here, and it is easy to see why this was chosen as a single, as it is also probably the most accessible for music programmers, as it will mix pretty well with just about any type of metal/metalcore.

If you are looking for something a bit faster, "Obsessed" is more your type of song.  A quick drum run opens the track and instantly the rhythm guitars charge to the front in one of the fastest songs on the album.  Right away the harsher vocals from Rowley are used, and they are the vocal choice for the verse sections, while he cleans up for the choruses, creating a nice interplay between vocal styles.  There is also a female voice that chimes in during the verse portions, which adds even more dynamic and dimension to the track, and there is a point near the finish of the track that Rowley really reaches down to death growl territory, countered by blackened screams that just show the full range of what this band can bring to a track.  Smith's fingers fly through a blistering solo, and the drums really kick in the speed and power on "Obsessed", which is probably my favorite song over all.

"Fragile" returns more to that mid-tempo metalcore stomp style and is the shortest track here, clocking in at 2:47.  Kucinski has some really nice patterns going on here, and as is the case with a lot of metalcore, he's not afraid to abuse his cymbals!  Smith tears through some big rhythm riffs, and Rowley again incorporates both clean and harsh vocals here.  Short and to the point, "Fragile" is definitely not a frail track, musically, and it features a pretty cool groove in the breakdown. 

"This Life" starts with an odd-sounding instrument...for all the world it sounds like muted electric ukulele to me!...but the punishing drums from Kucinski and the think, chunky rhythm riffs from Smith quickly blast you back from your distraction, and Rowley takes off from there.  Using a clean voice for most of the verses, he mixes death growls and blackened screams into the pre-chorus and chorus sections, again providing a really cool dynamic, and once again this is a track that I find myself really drawn to.  As with most of the record, "This Life" can't be labelled pure metalcore, especially with a breakdown section that includes strings, piano, and an atmospheric quality that kind of knocks me back and makes me go, "whoa".  Vicious drums and harshly barked vocals burst forth out of this section, before the song drifts back to this atmospheric style once more to close the track.  Musically brilliant, and again, one of my favorite tracks here, along with "Obsessed" and "Out Of Time", which I'll discuss in a moment.

"Who Told You" punches you in the jaw to snap you back to what XIII Minutes is for most of this record, and that is a tight, groove-laden modern, hard rock band with a metalcore edge.  I love the rhythm riff on this track a lot, and the bottom end is rock solid.  Much like "Blue Flame", there is an accessible quality about this track that should lend itself to being pushed as a single to places like ChristianRock.net and TheBlast.  Even Octane should be drooling all over itself to snag this track and shove it into rotation, as it really is that good.  Most of Rowley's vocals are of the clean variety here, although his aggressive snarl does make an appearance late in the track.

"Water Vice" is even more punishing than "Who Told You", and finds the band in full-speed mode here, pushing themselves as far into metalcore territory as they venture on this record.  A massive break-down section with those big, bowed guitar stretches is a lot of fun here, and Rowley is in fine form here, easily shifting vocal styles.  Wheat's bass is definitely a big part of "Water Vice", as well Once again, the drum patterns and the precision from Kucinski are superb, and with musical quality like this, I can't help but really find myself surprised that I haven't heard more about this band.  Where has XIII Minutes been and why haven't they been supported more or pushed harder?  I'm at a loss.

"Out Of Time" is the closest the band comes to a ballad, and it is a starkly different track than anything that has come before it.  From the moment Kyle Simpson's piano starts things off, it is clear that this song is a totally different type of monster.  Rowley's clean singing voice soon joins in, and most listeners would be excused for wondering if this track ended up on Obsessed by accident, as it sounds NOTHING like anything else XIII Minutes has done to this point.  In fact, forget the term "metalcore" for a moment, and just think "music".  Add in the gorgeous harmony vocals...and then lead vocals for verse two...from Jessica Wheat and you have a truly beautiful piece of music that should be all over ChristianRock.net and TheBlast!  This is potent, potent stuff!  And to make it even more amazing, I was told this was Wheat's first time recording.  What?!  Someone needs to take a trip to Oklahoma and see where she's been hiding and see if there are more like her, because this girl can sing!  Check her, and this excellent track, out below...

 

"When You Have Suffered" is an odd interlude here, and really doesn't fit the flow of the album, in my opinion.  Fortunately it is short (just over a minute), and if it really bugs you, I'm assuming you know how the skip button works.

The album closes with a cover of "Reckless Love", which has been done a couple of times, originally by Cory Asbury, and later by Barry Blair.  Basically a praise and worship song set to harder-edged rock, this is a nice end to the album.  Considerably harder here than in previous versions, the guitars are thicker with a punchier bottom end.  The group vocals on the chorus at the end are a nice touch here, and Rowley uses a clean vocal approach for the entirety of the track.

If modern hard rock with a good dose of groove, heavy chunks of corish vocals, and areas of surprising musicality sounds like it might be your style, XIII Minutes is definitely in your wheelhouse!  Just don't go in with an idea that you know what you are getting based solely on one song or one video, because this is a band that is seemingly throwing new elements at you, trying new things, and keeping the listener on their toes at all times.  Rowley's excellent clean/harsh separation is key here, as are the tight patterns and fills from Kucinski, and the guitar work from Smith, whether on rhythm, lead, or bass guitar, is of really good quality.  Color me impressed, especially on the new material here, which is top notch!

Available digitally from Bandcamp here.

Rating:  Surprisingly crankable!  Crank this to 7.5 as a whole, but I'd give this an 8.5 if based solely on tracks 1, 5-11, and the cover, track 13!

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BLISTER BRIGADE "Slugfest Supreme"

(c) 2020 Inverse Records

1. Slugfest Supreme
2. Ready To Crumble
3. Let's Storm The Walls
4. Arson
5. Through Murky Times
6. S.M.M.
7. Damaged Goods 
8. Disintegrate
9. Venomous Twister
10. Pounding The Deadbeat
11. Burn My World Alive

Gustav Lund--Vocals, Lead & Rhythm Guitars

Cristoffer Strand--Lead & Rhythm Guitars

Anders Gustavsson--Bass

Rickard Lundmark--Drums

Blister Brigade is a classic heavy metal band from Sweden that completely hearkens back to the type of metal I spent so much of the early-to-mid-80s listening to.  I'm not talking Hollywood Hair Metal here, as it wasn't in fashion yet. I'm talking classic heavy metal of bands Accept, Saxon, Judas Priest, Anvil, Scorpions, Virgin Steele, and the like.  The music here is gritty, very riff-driven, and generally pretty catchy. with strong guitar performances, really solid drums, bass that can actually be heard in the mix(!), and vocals that are incredibly reminiscent of that early-to-mid-80s era.  Heck, even the production on Slugfest Supreme sounds like it is straight out of the era, adding an extra layer of nostalgic charm to the record.

The album kicks off with the dreaded intro.  Why do bands do this?  If you think it's musically interesting enough to include, why not just make your intro part of a song?  At least "Slugfest Supreme" is less than 90 seconds long, and to be fair, it covers enough musical bases that I am not really sure why it wasn't expanded into its own song.  So many intros are quirky instrumental numbers, but this has everyone involved, including the lead singer, so...I begrudgingly give Blister Brigade a pass on this intro.

The album proper starts off with a metallic bang, as "Ready To Crumble" kicks things off in fine fashion.  Immediately I am drawn to the vocals of Gustav Lund, because he sounds so much like someone else that it is making my brain itch.  It took several listens before I figured it out, but he sounds a lot like David Reece when he was with Accept...and that is a dang good thing!  As for the song itself, there is a lot of fast rhythm guitar playing, some equally fleet-footed work on the double bass from Lundmark, and a steady bottom end rumble from Gustavsson, which really establishes the band as solidly  talented!  The second guitar is great to hear, although I can't honestly tell you who is playing lead and who is playing rhythm, as both Lund and Strand are listed as playing both, and I don't have a track-by-track breakdown.  I like this song a lot, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this point, as if I am being honest, I judged this band by its name and wasn't really expecting a lot from a band called Blister Brigade.  Sue me...

"Storm The Walls" continues in that early-to-mid-80s metal style, although I will say that the placement of this song right after "Ready To Crumble" feels disjointed, as the two songs have such different rhythms and tempos.  Regardless, the rhythm guitars here are top notch, and I really like the riff they have worked up here.   A double kick drum runs pretty much the length of the track, and some gang shouted, "hey, hey, heys" at the end of the track are a nice touch.  Not a huge stand-out track, but definitely a solid slab of old school metal.  Color me impressed at this point.

Things actually pick up from this point in the record, with "Arson", the second single from this record, making me really wish there was still a place to hear this kind of metal in the United States.  This is a mid-tempo rocker with a tough sounding bottom end with plenty of rumble from the bass.  The guitar solo is a great string-bender with plenty of power, even if there isn't a ton of flash, and Lund's vocals are in excellent Reecian form here!  Check out the video below:

"Through Murky Times" is an outlier here, in terms of style.  A much slower song than anything else on Slugfest Supreme, "Through Murky Times" is an acoustic-based, folky ballad, with an interesting musical presentation and a vocal style that is unlike anything on the record.  The acoustic guitars are really good, with a catchy riff  employed in the verse sections, accompanied by a piano and an excellent bass line.  The guitar solo that sears its way into the track is of the plugged-in variety, and it is played with a large dose of emotion and soul, as it should be due to the melancholy nature and structure of the song, overall.  The backing vocals are lower in register than the lead vocals, and they take on a semi-chanted style that is fairly common in heavy folk rock.  The track is really well done, but it is going to throw some people, I have a feeling.  The more I hear it, the more I like it and the higher it climbs on my list of songs that I really dig from this record.

"Through Murky Times" bleeds directly into "S.M.M.", which stands for Street Metal Mayhem, which is a pretty accurate description of this album as a whole.  Not overly flashy, but catchy and gritty, "S.M.M." builds the tempo until it hits a solid uptempo rhythm...that then speeds up even further with the short burst that is the guitar solo before a vocal bridge leading into the final run through the chorus.  Some galloping double-kick drums jump into the mix, and the lower-register guitar tones on the rhythm playing really add to the dirty feel of the track.  Not my favorite, but a solid rocker, nonetheless.

"Damaged Goods" has a sassy rhythm to it, bordering on boogie-woogie at times, but the deep, grumbling vocals Lund uses in part of the first verse keep things from getting too out of hand.  He drifts back into David Reece territory for the majority of the song, and it is in this range that Lund best operates, although it is impressive to hear the different ranges that he can work in.  A riffy solo section builds out of a brief moment of nothingness, soon accompanied by steadily building drums and gang-shouted "Damaged Goods!", before a final run through the chorus leads to the chug-chug-chugging end of the song.  Catchy stuff here.

"Disintegrate" drifts into a more late-60s/early 70s psychadelic rock feel at the outset, especially with Lund's vocal performance, but then blends in that classic heavy metal riffage from the rest of the album, giving the track an overall 70s classic rock feel that I can't help but really enjoy.  These guys know how to write a song, that is for sure!  The guitar work here is top notch, and while not flashy, the solo here...and pretty much everywhere on Slugfest Supreme...really fits the mood and groove of the song.

"Venomous Twister" comes storming out of "Disintegrate" at full-speed, with thrashy rhythm guitars and machine gun drums.  Released as a single from the album, "Venomous Twister" is Blister Brigade at their absolute best, I think, with Lund again sounding a lot like Accept-era Reese with the snarl and rasp of his vocals.  The guitar solo here has a bit of flash and flair not utilized in many other places, and the overall feel of the song is a bit like not-really-thrash-but-definite-speed-metal of early Helloween.  Definitely my favorite song out of a batch of really good material.

"Pounding The Deadbeat" as a rather humorous title, but the punishing groove and thunderous drums are nothing to laugh at here.  This song is thick, heavy, and rumbles deep along the bottom end, threatening to become a bit ponderous but never bogging down.  Lund adds a wicked sneer to his vocals here, and the quirky first-half of the guitar solo following the second chorus once again showcases the strong songwriting skills of the band.  This is another really well-crafted track that works in a musical style that nobody employs today.  Really, really good stuff.

The album closes on another higher-speed note with "Burn My World Alive".  Lundmark's drums continue to do a lot of heavy lifting here, as they have throughout the album, and he shows that he is fully capable of tempo, rhythm, and pattern changes at the drop of a hat.  The bass from Gustavsson is also given plenty of room to gallop here, and the twin guitars from Lund and Strand rip their way through this proto-speed metal romp that punctuates the album with a strong exclamation point. 

Some people are going to squabble about the production of the record, but if they do, they are missing the point.  This is not supposed to pristine, slick, polished melodic hard rock/metal.  This is heavy metal of the old school variety.  As such, the production here sounds like what we used to associate with metal back in the pre-hair days.  Its gritty, its edgy, heck, you can almost hear the hiss and pop of the vinyl that this would have been grooved into back in the day.  I can't help but smile when I hear the sound, and get that same feeling I used to get from the early metal records I discovered as a teen.  This is what I believe the band intended, and they pull it off so very well!

Do yourselves a favor, overlook the band name, and pick up Slugfest Supreme if you are like me and you hold fond memories of those pre-hair metal days.  Blister Brigade doesn't reinvent heavy metal, but they do a fine job of injecting a dose of a forgotten branch of the genre back into the scene.  If you can't find something to like on this record, I have to question how much of a fan of those early metal days you really are.  "Through Murky Times" and "Venomous Twister" alone should do plenty to earn the most ardent metalhead's approval!

Rating:  Nothing is earth-shattering here, but Slugfest Supreme still cranks!  Crank this to 7.5!

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STEELCITY "Mach II"

(c) 2020 Perris Records

1. Hearts On Fire
2. Dead Men
3. Steal Your Heart
4. Wasted Time
5. I Cry
6. A Little Love
7. Still Close To My Heart
8. Give It Back
9. Spotlight
10. Prayer For Love
11. Down To One

Roy Cathey--Lead Vocals

Mike Floros--Guitars

Jason Cornwell--Bass

Tony Stahl--Keys

BJ Zampa--Drums

What happens when you take something you are passionate about, build it up to a level that you maybe never dreamed you would get to, and then find yourself blowing the whole thing up, only to start again?  If you get the chance, ask Mike Floros; he probably has a story to tell you!

Following the critical, if not commercial, success of SteelCity's debut album, Fortress, Floros, the band's founding member, guitarist and chief songwriter, stripped everything back down to the most basic element...himself.  From there, he assembled the current version of the band, enlisting the monster vocals of Cold Sweat's Roy Cathey, the enormous talents of House Of Lords' drummer BJ Zampa, and two talented individuals I was not previously familiar with in Cornwell (Eric Martin Band) and Stahl (DeadRisen).  The end result is a true beast of a record that builds upon everything that was great about Fortress, combining an obvious affection for the power chords and Hammond sound of mid-to-late 70s classic rock and the bombast of 80s metal to create a sound that sets itself apart in the melodic rock world of 2020.

You need venture no further than the album's opener to hear the difference between the very good Fortress and the excellent Mach II, as almost immediately the amplitude of the talent is ramped up.  Cathey's higher-end shout of the "Heart's On Fire" chorus kicks things off, and Floros comes flying into the fray, fingers flying in a display of speed and dexterity that sets the stage for the rest of the record.  Stahl lays down a thick layer of Hammond and Cornwell's bass rumbles to life, partnering with Zampa to lay the bedrock for this massive song.  As I stated earlier, the band's love of that 70s power chord is obvious here, and when blended with Floros' thick riffs and searing solo runs that blast straight out of the 80s melodic metal scene, "Heart's On Fire" is pretty much the perfect opening for ANY album of this type!  One track in and I find myself reaching for my jaw, which has pretty much hit my desk.

A great drum intro launches "Dead Men", before Stahl and his true grasp on the power of the Hammond, accompanies by a fat groove from Cornwell, drive the track deeply into 70s classic rock territory.  Roy comes barreling in with his power delivery, and I am immediately hit with the similarities between Cathey's vocals and those of 80s/90s vocal powerhouse, Mike Lee, of Barren Cross.  Both have a truly remarkable mastery of the rich lower tenor/upper baritone delivery that they incorporate, with both able to elevate when necessary.  True vocal greatness is but a piece of this song, however, as this is a monster of a song with a hook that sticks with me for hours after listening to it, and a catchy chorus that begs to be sung along with.  The backing/counter vocals on the chorus are the perfect foil for Cathey's voice to stand out all that much more, and Floros flies through another tasty solo just prior to the last chorus run that ends with Cathy stretching the final note over several powerful seconds.  Great stuff here!

"Steal Your Heart" finds SteelCity firmly entrenched in mid-80s melodic metal territory, using more of an 80s-era sound for the keys, and relying more on the heavy riffs of the rhythm guitars and the bass to drive the track.  Zampa's tempo and pattern are also classic examples from that era, and everything comes together to form yet another vehicle for Cathey's vocal dominance to really burst forth.  Floros' solo here is excellent, once again, showcasing an understanding of not just the flash of the 80s "hair metal" solo, but also the harmonic depth of the "true metal" solo of the time.  This may be my favorite solo on the album...or one of the top two or three for sure, and that is saying something, as Floros is a big talent on the six string that not enough people have heard about.  Hopefully Mach II will change that!

"Wasted Time" drifts back to the Hammond-driven, Deep Purple-inspired 70s/early 80s groove, with another big, catchy, hooky chorus that is perfectly suited for Cathey's delivery style.  I really like the bass solo-becomes a drum fill-becomes a guitar solo that follows the second run through the chorus, and again, Floros goes off on a solo that both runs and soars, speeds then screams its way into the final verse section of the track.  It's a tough fight for any song to reach the top of the heap on this record, but I'd be lying (by omission) if I didn't say there was something about "Wasted Time" that drags me back to it time and time again.  This is a powerful mid-tempo rocker that just bridges that classic rock/classic metal gap so expertly that I find myself hitting repeat on it more than once.

"I Cry" starts off with some melodic guitar work that reminds me a lot of the way The Storm's excellent song, "You Keep Me Waiting" starts, but rather than launch into an 80's melodic rocker the way that "...Waiting" does, "I Cry" bleeds back into that thick bass-and-Hammond groove that plows forward behind Cathey's voice and Floros' guitars.  An interesting thing happens where it feels like the song is going to explode into another big guitar solo; the song instead takes on a bit of an atmospheric feel, with more 80s-esque keyboard usage and some big drums, with just a tiny-but-frantic guitar run taking the song into the final chorus.  It is as the chorus dies that Floros explodes and goes off on a big, song-ending run.  I really like the songwriting maturity here that shows that a song doesn't have to follow a specific, set pattern to still deliver in a big way.  Another one of my faves here.

"A Little Love" is just catchy as all get out and is a track that I think really and truly lets the listener know what SteelCity is all about, as all elements of the new band's sound are on display here.  While maybe a bit more lyrically cliche than some of the other tracks here, the musical performances are all top notch, with every player given a place, and each instrument being given a full voice.  If the world of radio were to still play music of this style, I would say "A Little Love" definitely has "radio single" written all over it.

The same can be said of "Still Close To My Heart", which has that "not a rocker-but not a ballad" style that seemed to hit so big in the mid-to-late-80s as far as crossing over from the rock arena to the Top 40 charts.  Catchy as heck and smoothly produced, this is pure ear candy through and through, from the big "ohhhs" of the backing vocals to the melodic bass line and the classy guitar sections.  As one familiar with Cathey's voice might expect, he is definitely in his element here, free to allow his voice to soar in spots, while also allowed to be a bit punchy in spots, as well.

"Give It Back" is another contender for song of the album for me, as this is just a monster track filled with powerful performances strung together, from dirty bass line that intros the song to the gritty rhythm guitars...to say nothing of that rapid-fire flourish after the tempo change in the opening minute of the track...to Zampa's snappy patterns and cadences.  The chorus is simple but catchy and likely to be stuck in your head for a good while after hearing it, and Cathey continues his vocal dominance here.  Floros' solo is, once again, one that really needs to be heard, and this is definitely one of the best on the record.  This is just a fun song that screams summertime with the top down.  Excellent stuff.

I like the vocal inflection that Cathey uses on the verses of "Spotlight", and the call-and-response of the chorus is perfect, with the backing vocals chanting "I want you!" before each line Cathey offers up, and later adding echoes of "Shine on" in response to Cathey declaring "you're in the spotlight!"  Floros lays into yet another great solo, albeit a shorter one that I thought he might tear through, and the rhythm section is rock solid here.  And, as is so often the case here, the supporting role of the Hammond/keys is expertly executed here, never dominating the track, but also never disappearing.  Short, sweet, and down and dirty, "Spotlight" is likely my personal favorite of the record, and is everything that is great about this genre of music all wrapped up in one track.  I can just see the big-haired, doe-eyed 80s vixen in the barely there outfit that would have been dominating this track had it been set to video in 1988!  Honestly, this song has Headbanger's Ball hit written all over it if it's released 30 years ago.  Love, love, love this song!           

If I had anything I would change here, I would probably drop the instrumental, "Prayer For Love", and that is not a judgement against that track.  No, it's more because it's 1:22 of time that the album isn't graced by the power of Cathey's voice and the scream of Floros' guitar.  Sure, it's a nice opportunity for Stahl to shine on piano, but gimme the whole enchilada when the rest of the meal has been this tasty.  Know what I mean? 

The album closes in excellent fashion with "Down To One".  Soft keys intro the track, kind of feeding off the piano of "Prayer...", leading Cathey's vocals in for one more run on the record.  Once again, the sheer power that he sings with is stunning to behold, and for the tenth time in eleven tracks, a lot of people are going to find themselves asking how this dude didn't become a household name!  The deep richness with which he sings is almost peerless in today's music scene, and if I was putting together a band and an album of this type of melodic hard rock/metal, I can't honestly think of anyone else I would sign on as my vocalist ahead of Cathey.  I am that impressed with his performance here.  Floros, as per usual here, rips through an excellent, high octane solo, but then attempts to one-up himself by dropping an emotive acoustic interlude into the track as well before finishing things off with another whammy-bending, string-melting, fret-smoking solo that brings this nearly-perfect record to an unfortunate close.  

Outside of the sheer musical talent found on Mach II, I would have to point to the higher level of songwriting on this album over its predecessor, which is really saying something.  Again, with Fortress, we're talking about a Top 10 album of 2018 for Glitter2Gutter, but everything that record did great, Mach II does better.  Add in spotless production and a gorgeous mix, and there is practically nothing to dislike about this record other than the fact that it eventually comes to an end.  Of course, that just gives the listener an excuse to start it all over again, which this listener has done repeatedly for the last couple of weeks.  

To predict that Mach II will end up in the Top 20 of 2020 doesn't require Carnac-like prescience, as this album is truly that great!  Hunt it down, pop it in, and see if you can manage to dislodge it from your disc player.  So far, I have not been able to...  Mach II is so, so close to musical perfection for me that I have no desire to replace it with anything else at this point.

Rating:  Absolute crankability here!  9.5 for Mach II!

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MONDAY SHOCK "Rude Awakenings"

(c) 2020 Burning Minds

1. Rude Awakenings
2. Blind
3. Your Side
4. Spirit Of Life

Alessandro Marchi--Vocals

Enrico Dabellani--Guitars

Nicola Iazzi--Bass

Alessandro Broggi--Keys

Fabiano Bolzoni--Drums

Monday Shock is something of a project band that was put together by well-known Italian producer, Oscar Burato, who not only produced this project, but also co-wrote the songs here.  The result is a catchy, fun EP that combines not only an obvious love for 80's melodic rock but also the bouncing tempos and rhythms of the 90s pop-punk sound.

"Rude Awakenings" is a throw-away intro that teases the listener into believing they are going to be getting some sort of 80's synthpop band here, which is 100% not the case.  An alarm clock sounds, and we hear the cover model yawn before the electronic drums and synthesizers kick in.  The joke is carried out very convincingly, I must admit, because for the first minute of this EP, I have to admit I was a bit concerned as to what I was getting here.  

"Blind" is the first real song here, and it is a good one.  Rhythm guitars and drums open the track, along with an obvious bass presence and just a hint of keyboards as a supporting instrument, which is generally how I like to hear them incorporated.  The song has a fun, bouncy tempo and a definite pop sensibility to the song structure, but this is definitely melodic hard rock.  Marchi's vocals kick in and instantly my mind goes to a young Klaus Meine as far as the tone that he uses and the accented-but-understandable lyrics.  The guitars here are really good, with Dabellani showing some flair in what sounds to be a largely tapped solo and some solid rhythm guitars throughout the track.  A promising musical start to this short 3 song EP (we won't be going back to that intro anytime soon.)  Check out the video for "Blind", the debut single, below.

"Your Side" is another catchy, uptempo rocker, with the pace and rhythm very much in line with a lot of the pop-punk songs of the 90s I mentioned at the outset, but once again, this is very much a melodic hard rock track with a really strong bass presence, tight drumming, and more guitar flash from Dabellani.  I did some research on Dabellani, and apparently the guy was basically just a session player and cover band guitarist before jumping on board here.  Also a songwriting contributor on this EP, I have to think someone is going to grab him up to play for them at some point if Monday Shock doesn't go forward from here, because his talent is unquestionable.  By the way, that bass presence I talked about previously comes from Nicola Iazzi, who may be familiar to some as the one-time bassist for bands such as Embryo, Firmo, and he worked for a brief time with Hardline.  This is a fun rocker that feels like summer, and I have no doubt it will be released as a single in Europe where music such as this still has something of a voice on the radio.

"Spirit Of Life" starts of with a soulful blues guitar intro blending into the full band as the EP closes with this very strong ballad.  Again, Marchi's vocals take on something of a younger Klaus Meine tone, and the whole song sounds very much like something the Scorpions may have tackled on their more recent releases.  The backing vocals are superbly done, and the music here, especially the guitar work, is pretty much spot-on.  An excellent close to a pretty strong debut EP from a project that I hope continues on.   

As one might expect, the production here is excellent, with Burato at the control board.  If you are at all familiar with the sound of bands on the Street Symphonies or Logic II Logic labels, then you have likely heard Burato's work, as he was the co-founder of both of those labels.  There is a level of polish to these tracks, but not so much that the guitars lack bite, the keyboards dominate the sound, or that the drums sound overly processed.  This is just a fun experiment that I feel deserves a chance to be explored further, just to see what happens.

Very, very short, especially when the evil-tease intro is thrown aside, Rude Awakenings is harmless fun that should mix well with just about any modern Euro-melodic rock you want to mix it with.  

Rating:  You really can't go wrong with this little effort, so crank it to 7 and let's see if anything further comes of Monday Shock!

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ADELLAIDE "New Horizons"

(c) 2019 Lion's Pride Music

1. Robotica
2. Time's Hotel
3. Nightfalls
4. Tonight (Once In A Lifetime)
5. Ring Of Saturn
6. Smile
7. It's Just A Matter Of Time
8. Oceania
9. Paradise Grace
10. Together Again

Daniel Vargas--Vocals

Vitor Balconi--Guitars

Cadu Yamazaki--Bass

Leandro Freitas--Keys

Herbert Loureiro--Drums

Adellaide is a Brazilian band that I only recently discovered when New Horizons showed up in my inbox.  Blending an obvious love for 80s melodic rock, AOR, and progressive rock, Adellaide is not really like any other band I have come across in some time.

For starters, as I mentioned, there is an obvious 80s element to the band, particularly in the song structures and the instrumentation.  But, I don't mean 80s as in "hair bands and Hollywood".  I mean 80s as in slickly-produced, Top 40 AOR stuff.  The band claims to be influenced by Journey, Survivor, Kansas, and Asia, and to be sure, there are elements of all of those bands on New Horizons.  But they come in small doses.  For example, on "Tonight (Once In A Lifetime)" there are times you can hear bits of Journey, particularly in certain guitar passages, but for the most part, and if you close your eyes and let your imagination run a bit, you can hear a bit of Kansas in the melodies and the way the vocals are applied to this piano-laden ballad.  The vocals are smooth, but heavily accented with some significant English pronunciation issues, but I can get around that, as this is not an uncommon issue with all the foreign bands I am exposed to.  No, my main issue is I feel like I need to visit my dentist after sitting through more than a handful of songs from Adellaide, as the music is just too slick, too sweet, too sugary for me to spend a lot of time with it.  And that's unfortunate, because there is obviously a lot of musical talent in this band, particularly in the guitar work of Balconi and the drums/percussion of Loureiro.  

The album starts off with a spoken work intro for the first track "Robotica".  From the get-go, I think this is supposed to be a concept record to some extent, but for the life of me, I can't figure the story line out.  Anyway, the actual music of this track starts about 35 seconds into the track, and to be honest, the music is rather catchy.  Vargas's voice joins the track and almost immediately I hear Klaus Meine of the Scorpions, both in the pronunciation of certain words and in the tone he sings with.  There are also some odd, Mr. Roboto-type vocal effects thrown into the chorus, which I can work around.  After the second chorus, Balconi goes on a really nice, melodic guitar run that has me thinking Adellaide might really be onto something.  I mean, this guy is good, and as I said, the song is catchy, even if it is overly polished.

But when "Time's Hotel" kicks in, the album starts a slow slide into 80s high school movie soundtrack territory.  You know what I'm talking about:  a band is playing in the background as the movie's main characters dance in some sort of climactic plot point, as camera's cut to the feathery-haired lead singer crooning to the guitarist who bending his strings in a highly melodic solo...just before the keytar player wanders across the stage, and we cut instantly back to Molly Moore or Demi Sheedy or Ally Ringwald (see what I did there??).  This song...and really, the majority of the album...is just so slick that it doesn't even feel like rock, regardless of the tempo or the instruments being played.  And I feel bad because I WANT to like it!  Again, Balconi has some serious talent on the guitar, and once again his skill is on display here in an excellent solo.  But the overall feel is just too slick, too pop-infused, and too danged sweet to really enjoy.  Plus, this is one song where Vargas's enunciation is noticeable to me, because he doesn't use the "h" in his "th" sounds, so when he sings "you are my therapy" he's instead singing "you are my terapy"...and it just drives me up the wall!!!

"Nightfalls" has some great percussion/drum work to it, sounding a bit like Phil Collins in places, a bit like Men At Work in others, and I think it's a really cool sound that Loureiro has going on here, with some interesting patterns and tempos.  The guitars are really good, and the bass work is tight, but there are WAY too many keys for my liking, and there are some really bizarre vocal accompaniment sounds (not really singing so much as...squawking, maybe?) that just do serious damage to the track.

As I previously mentioned, "Tonight (Once In A Lifetime)" is really a pretty good track...probably my favorite of the album, to be honest....with some solid mid-80s Top 40 guitar rock song writing.  The song it reminds me of a bit, however, actually comes from the mid-90s, as there is something here that really makes me think of Foreigner's "Until The End Of Time".  As I stated above, the guitar work here has a Journey quality to it at times, and the use of the piano, rather than keyboards, is a very good decision here.  I can imagine taking Tracy by the hand and escorting her to the dance floor at my high school prom, as she smiles sweetly at me as she most likely thinks to herself, "Why the heck did I tell this mohawked musclehead I'd go to prom with him...again?!"  Errrr....anywaaayyyy...

"Ring Of Saturn" is a pretty straight forward rocker with a progressive bent, and isn't as obnoxious as some of the tracks here.  Again, the song's title and apparent sci-fi significance makes me think I am supposed to be catching onto some grand story here, but I'm totally missing it.  It sounds like I'm on repeat here, but the guitar work is top notch, the rhythm section holds the line very well, the keys aren't overplayed, and the vocals are largely really good (some odd sounds again, however), but the production just feels like there is a layer of sugary glaze that drips down and around the song, pooling up around the base of it and oozing around your feet as you stop to admire the musicianship, only to find yourself stuck to the floor!

"Smile" is just...ah, heck...just read the last paragraph again...  

"It's Just A Matter Of Time" is my other favorite track here, and that is owed in large part to the fact that I absolutely loved the first two Asia records.  The keyboard intro alone throws me right back to that classic Asia debut record, with the greatness of  "Only Time Will Tell" and "Heat Of The Moment".  There is ZERO doubt that there has been some time spent listening to that band and that record here, as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" is a pure 80s melodic/prog rock track of the highest order.  Really, really good stuff that I wish popped up far more frequently style-wise on this record.  Now THAT would be a record I could fall in heavy like with!

"Oceania" again has be trying to figure out what the story of this album is...and again failing.  As far as the song itself goes, this one isn't all that bad, honestly.  The keyboard tone is a bit too pingy for me, but the rest of the track is pretty good.  A good rhythm section, a bit of an edge to Vargas's vocals, and...you guessed it...a really good guitar solo.  I'm kind of starting to wonder if the album was backloaded, because two of the best tracks are in the lower 40% of the record. 

"Paradise Grace" sounds like its going to return things to the sugary sweetness of most of the rest of the record, with far too much time spent on the keyboards that intro the track.  BUT...if you scan forward about 30 seconds or so, you get an 80s Journey-esque track, at least musically, although Vargas will never be confused with Steve Perry...or Steve Augeri...or Arnell-whatever-his-name-is. The rhythm guitars have a cool tone to them, the drums are very well done, and the backing vocals enhance what Vargas is trying to do.  The song itself isn't overly memorable, but its close to a standout on this record. 

The album (mercifully) closes with "Together Again", which starts off with some 80s video game soundtrack keyboards, but finds itself morphing into a fairly decent mid-tempo rock track.  Not metal, not hard rock, just rock.  The backing vocals are straight out of Up With People, but the guitar solo is nice, the Asia-styled synth solo tagged onto the end of the guitar run is pretty cool, and Vargas delivers one of his better overall performances here.  So to answer my own question from before, I would have to say that this album definitely IS backloaded, because all but one of the best songs come in the final four tracks here.  Now, I'm not saying they are great songs, because they are not.  They are, for the most part, pretty good to good, but still, that's an improvement over most of the first six tracks.

The thing is, I don't think this is the fault of the band, at all.  I think most of the problems here are due to the glossy layer of polish poured all over these songs.  I'm betting if you hear Adellaide live there will be more grit, more edge, more...ROCK...in several of these songs.  But with the heavy-handed approach utilized here, the rock is never able to grab a foothold because it slips off of whatever edge it tries to push off of, leaving it to hang on for dear life while the rest of the song slicks right on past.  And that's an odd thing for me, because the producer here is none other than Tito Falaschi.  Wait, you don't know who that is?  Well, I'm betting several readers know who his brother is, as Edu Falaschi was the lead vocalist for fellow Brazilian power/prog band Angra for a stretch of four albums including the excellent Rebirth.  You would think with that musical pedigree, Tito might have a bit more of an idea as to what melodic hard rock is supposed to sound like, but maybe he wasn't paying close enough attention, or perhaps he was trying to make sure that Adellaide DIDN'T sound like Angra.  Whatever the case, I honestly feel the production does serious damage to many of these songs and really brings down the album as a whole. 

Rating:  Just too much sugary goo to get through.  Rock this to a 5.5, but know there are a couple of really good songs, and some serious musical talent if you swim through the syrup to find it.

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GOLD, FRANKINCENSE, & MYRRH "GFM's Acoustic EP"

(c) 2019 Independent Release

1. On The Inside
2. Graveyard of Identities
3. Twisted Humanity
4. Give Me A Sign

CJ English--Vocals, Guitar

Maggie English--Bass, Vocals

Lulu English--Drums, Percussion, Vocals

Okay, for the most part, this whole stripped-down acoustic thing has run its course.  For the most part, all the listener is given is an EP or album filled with unplugged renditions of songs that the artist thinks they can safely pull off with very little thought or effort put into changing things up or putting consideration into how previously heavy material is going to come across in the acoustic setting.  But all of those things are "for the most part".  They are not the way Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh do things, thankfully.

The normally heavy, aggressive, often-harshly screamed music of GFM has been dumped on its head by the English sisters, and the result is a fabulously delicious mess.  Of particular note is the strength of the girls as musicians.  Acoustic music typically exposes weaknesses, in my experience, as you can't disguise a flub with more distortion or volume.  And, there are a few such flubs here, and the girls just blow through them.  For example, the lead vocals on "Graveyard Of Identities" stretch a bit too far in the second verse and come a bit off key at one point, but the girls just seem to shrug it off, seemingly owning their imperfections, and move on.  Musically, the skill exhibited by both CJ and Maggie on their stringed instruments is impressive, and hearing the girls all sing in clean vocals and HARMONIZE so well is a real treat.  I also really like the alternative percussion used by Lulu on a track like "Twisted Humanity" or "Give Me A Sign", both songs where she employs either congas, or perhaps tunable bongos, to deliver a rich tone that fits so well with the string work from her older sisters. 

Perhaps even more impressive to me is the rearrangement of these songs.  All four are tracks that have been released as singles at some point, so most listeners are already familiar with what they are hearing.  With that familiarity, there is often a tendency to stay safe and not challenge either the performers or the listeners to be open to something different.  That is NOT the case here, as all four songs have been reworked, with "Give Me A Sign" being particularly impressive to me.  The changes in vocal pitches, the way the backing "whoas" are still incorporated, but in a more haunting way, and the gentle incorporation of some piano (not sure who is playing that), really alters a song that is really aggressive in its usual form.  In all honesty, all four of these tracks are actually uptempo numbers and not songs that most bands would have chosen to rework, as there is a lot of change that was required to put these songs together in this new fashion.  Most bands would have played it safe with ballads, or at least more down-tempo numbers.  Not so with GFM.  Color me impressed.  And, lest you think the girls incapable of pulling this song off in the live setting, check the video below.

I have no way of knowing if these were done "live", or if they were all recorded in multiple takes over multiple sessions, but it matters little in the end.  The musical maturity shown by these three young ladies is worth noting, and GFM continues to prove that they are so much more than just a sister novelty act.  GFM is an act that deserves to be paid attention to, and they seemingly command that attention more with each release, including this little 4 song EP.  I genuinely hope that another acoustic effort is offered up by the girls at some point in the not-so-distant future, especially if it is anywhere near as good as this one. 

Rating:  It's an EP, it's acoustic, but it cranks!  Spin 'er up to 8!

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JENNA PARR "Made For This"

(c) 2020 Broadhead Music Group

1. T.K.O.
2. Break Me
3. The Runaway
4. Made For This
5. Those Eyes
6. The Runaway (Acoustic)
7. Tremble
8. Breakdown (Acoustic)

Jenna Parr--Vocals
Randall Broadhead--Guitars, Vocals, Bass, Drums, Piano, Programming, All Instruments on 7
Steve Perreria IV--Guitars, Bass, Drums on 1 & 4, Piano on 4
Matt Lane--Guitars, Bass, Drums on 2, 3, 5, Co-Lead Vocals, Piano on 8
Jordan Copas--Rap Vocals on 4

Jenna Parr is a relative newcomer to the Christian pop/rock scene, so I will forgive you if you don't know her name yet.  However, with the explosion of her current single, the Number One ChristianRock.Net hit "Break Me", that forgiveness won't be out there for long, as the music industry will soon know exactly who she is if she continues in this vein.

Supported by Randall Broadhead of We Are Vessel, Parr's 8 song EP is kind of all over the place musically.  And while she is certainly never "bad", it is definitely the harder-edged material that is likely to garner her the most attention.  This is immediately evident with album-opener, "TKO", an edgy rocker with hard grinding, modern guitars churning their way through the track, with a very solid bass presence in this track.  The drums sound like they are programmed, and there is an electronic, programmed element that seems to flow throughout the track, but these aren't necessarily bad things here.  Those hard-edged guitars I spoke of kick the track off in a very promising way, and I really like what the songwriters were trying to do here with the variance in tempo and rhythm.  And that bass is kickin'!  I also applaud Parr's effort here, but I just don't feel she hits the verses with enough attitude.  A little snarl can be a good thing on a track such as this, especially for a young woman like Parr who is trying to find her niche.  Not a bad song, but probably a bit of a gamble as the first track the listener hears when the album starts (if my track order is correct).  I would have probably started things off with the current single, "Break Me", but it's a short wait to get to that now-huge song.       

"Break Me" starts with a programmed keyboard sequence and what sound like programmed drums introing the song, before a buzzsaw guitar steadily builds and Parr's mid-range vocals kick it, with some programmed effects dropped into her vocals as she sustains the final note.  The entire "band" kicks in after this initial run, and the first verse hits, running through the same opening stanza of the song before adding a second line and a brief pre-chorus section.  It is the chorus that seems to grab the listener so strongly, and this is, in my opinion, due to a couple of things.  First, Parr has a very strong voice and knows her range well, so she is not found stretching for notes that she can't effectively hit, nor does she try to sound "edgy" (which I think would have worked on "TKO") with her singing style here, as I don't think it would have fit the almost Gothic feel that "Break Me"incorporates into its modern rock take.  She sings like she sings.  This is made all the more effective by the producer/mixer of this single, as Parr's vocals can be heard to be her own backup, singing in different registers and with different inflections, adding a unique sound to the backing vocals.  There is also a hint of an unclean male vocalist in final run through the chorus, which adds a bit of an edge to the track as well.  Lyrically, the song is extremely simple, with very few variations between the first and second verses, but it is the chorus that grabs the listener's attention and holds onto it fiercely.  That use of multiple layers of Parr backing herself, combined with the conviction with which she sings makes the chorus very infectious and hard to get out of your head.  There is a brief vocal bridge that enters into the mix before the final run through the chorus, but again, it's nothing overly complicated or attention-grabbing.  This song is all about the chorus, the hook, and the performance of Parr.  Check out the video below:

The album's title track and lead single, "Made For This", has an Evanescence quality to it, starting with a fairly haunting piano intro, which Parr joins as she sings about having a dream/nightmare, before the guitars, bass, and drums hit in a big way.  Again, very reminiscent of Evanescence, the guitars are edgy and crunchy, the drums, while sounding programmed, are solid and have enough punch to drive the track, and some additional percussion is thrown in for extra measure.  Broadhead's strong voice enters the fray on the second verse, and while he does good job on his own, for some reason his vocals do not mesh well with Parr's when they sing together.  This briefly results in Parr sounding like she comes a bit off key around the 2:05 mark.  This issue is short-lived, however, and a third voice enters the mix, as rapper Jordan Copas jumps in for a 30 second vocal run, before the male/female chorus section is repeated, with Copas dropping into a couple of spots as it exits the song.  I can see where this song would have been pretty welcomed on Christian rock radio, but there are some vocal issues I would like to see cleaned up to really emphasize the strong points here.  I like the idea of the three voices, even if I'm not necessarily the biggest rap-rock fan out there, and I do think it works well here and serves a solid purpose.  We just need to get the pitches matched up a bit better on the multi-voice choruses.

"Those Eyes" starts with a phone being dialed, only to catch a busy signal, which causes the band to hit full force with guitars, keys, drums, and bass.  A more mid-tempo rocker, this is probably my favorite track here, just ahead of "Break Me".  Parr stays in that lower end of her range, actually coming dangerously close to that snarl I mentioned was lacking in "TKO".  Again, the listener is treated to multiple layers of Parr singing both lead and backing vocals, and the guitars of Broadhead and Lane are more prominent here than on other tracks, which is a good thing, as it really adds to the overall feel of the track.  There is an urgency to the guitars here that is not really present in most of the rest of the album, minus "Break Me".  I really like this song, and I hope that this is pushed as a follow-up single to "Break Me", as I think it could do big things for Parr's rock career...if that's the path she chooses to take.

I say that because for the rest of the record, Parr seems reticent to let go of her softer side, sometimes even drifting toward the more praise and worship-styled music that she likely grew up with.  "Tremble" is a perfect example of this.  This cover song, performed originally by Mosaic MSC, among others, has some subtle programming running the length of the song, some muted electric drums and guitars, and a soaring vocal presence from Parr that finds her singing far more sweetly than on the three rockers here, and doing so in excellent fashion.  This track is very much in the vein of modern worship music that many churches employ today in an effort to reach younger demographics.  She also does a GREAT job singing on the acoustic version of "The Runaway", which is just Parr and a piano, and while I'm willing to bet the full-electric version of this really well-written song will be released to rock radio at some point, I wouldn't be at all shocked to see the acoustic version on the Christian pop charts. The same can be said of "The Breakdown", another vocals and piano track, but this time featuring a duet between Parr and Lane.  The voices work extremely well together, especially on the bridge section where they are singing in unison for much of the stretch.  Very well done, here.  And, while it is not my style of music, I have to admit the song is well-written and performed, and again, I would be this song is released to Christian pop stations at some point.  

What happens to Parr from this point on is probably going to be determined largely by which direction she feels most comfortable going in, as I think she has a lot of potential in both the hard rock and the praise and worship areas.  Yeah, she might cross-over into the Christian pop realm a bit, as I mentioned, but I don't get the feeling that is where she desires to be.  If Parr really embraces the rock sound that half of this EP builds to, I think she will be welcomed with wide-open arms, as strong females in Christian rock, just like in mainstream rock, are something of a rare commodity.  

As a debut effort, there is a lot to like about Made For This, but there are some things to improve upon, as well.  But if the response to "Break Me" shows anything, its that rock listeners are ready for more from Jenna Parr, and there are a couple of musical punches on this album that this young woman still has to throw (PLEASE push "Those Eyes"!!).  Let's hope they find their mark!

Rating:  Rock this at  6.5, with a good dose of promise in between a couple of lesser moments.

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MARENNA "My Unconditional Faith"

(c) 2015 Independent Release

1. You Need To Believe
2. Like An Angel
3. Keep On Dreaming
4. You Need To Believe (Acoustic)

Rodrigo Marenna--Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals

Jonas Godoy--Rhythm Guitars, Bass, Keys, Backing Vocals

Guilhemme Mello--Drums on 1, 3, 4

Additional Musicians

Sasha Z--Lead Guitars "You Need To Believe"

Geraldo Alata--Lead Guitars on "Like An Angel", Backing Vocals

Cesar Branco--Lead Guitars on "Keep On Dreaming"

Matt Thofehrn--Drums on "Like An Angel"

Aaron Alves--Backing Vocals

Not often, but every now and then an independent release crosses my desk that absolutely blows me away.  Now, a lot of indie bands have great songs, but the production is off.  A few releases have excellent production, but the musicianship is obviously still developing.  Sometimes the talent is there musically, but the songwriting is definitely a work in progress.  But occasionally, everything is there.  Marenna is one of those rare instances where the vocals, the instrumentation, the songs, the production...everything is there!

I honestly have no idea how this EP found its way to my hands, but I am so very glad it did, because Marenna is a melodic rock band that truly deserves to be heard and to gain a much larger audience.  Lead singer and band founder, Rodrigo Marenna, has a rich, powerful tenor that is truly a treat to hear!  The press kit I received states that Marenna, the man, has performed over 800 shows throughout his career, performing with various bands before he decided to put together his own project and pursue the type of music he truly loves.  In my opinion, that amount of work shows itself in a strong way on My Unconditional Faith, as the performances, the songs, and the vocals are all here in excellent fashion.

The catchy, up-tempo rocker, "You Need To Believe" starts things off in a big way.  Reportedly a fairly big song in Japan for a time, "You Need To Believe" is sonic candy, so catchy, so smooth, and so perfectly executed, it just sticks with me for hours after listening to it.  Fans of Journey, H.E.A.T., even Bon Jovi, are going to find something to love on this track (and the others, as well), as the melodic hard rock here is of a very high caliber.  The rhythm guitars here are solid, and the solo from Sasha Z. (Zavistanovicz if you need to know) is absolutely excellent, displaying flashes of speed and a fluid style reminiscent of so many great 80s players.  Check out the video below:

"Like An Angel" is every bit as attention-grabbing as its predecessor, with a catchy, sing-along chorus, a big guitar hook, and a soaring solo, this time from Geraldo Alta.  The backing vocals are expertly done, layered perfectly, which is something that is frequently overlooked on an independent effort such as this.  Once again, Marenna's voice is spot-on, staying mostly in his lower tenor range, especially on the verse sections, while allowing it to climb the scale a bit on the chorus sections, but never overextending to the point where his voice warbles or slips into falsetto.  Make no mistake, this guy can flat out sing!

The last "new" track here is "Keep On Dreaming", the longest track on the EP.  Starting with a nifty little guitar sequence and a big gang-shouted "Hey", this track is another fine example of modern melodic hard rock with some definite 80s/90s influence.  The rhythm guitars have some nice edge to them, and the rhythm section, which I have neglected thus far, is extremely tight.  I like the mix of percussion that Mello employs here, not just sticking to the snare and kick drum, but mixing in a lot of cymbals, high hat, and what sounds like some tambourine as well.  Cesar Branco is the axe-slinger of choice on this one, and while his solo is a bit shorter than the others, he does a lot of lead work throughout the track and has a really catchy run underneath the exiting chorus sections.  Once again, excellent melodic hard rock that will definitely encourage the listener to hit repeat on more than one occasion.

The EP closes with an acoustic rendering of "You Need To Believe", which is not just a stripped-down version of the track, but a nicely restructured rendering of the lead single.  The percussion used here is interesting, and the bass is particularly strong here.  The guitars are clean and free of fretboard squeaks and squeals, and the solo, while much simpler (obviously), is played expertly and serves as a complement to the song, not a "look at me" moment.  The backing vocals are also nicely put together, which isn't often the case on acoustic tracks, especially if the players aren't overly gifted vocalists.  However, it is the smooth, powerful vocals of Marenna, himself, that are on display here, as he expertly glides across the acoustic foundation of the track on the verses, and weaves in and out of the rhythm on the chorus parts.  It is fair to say that this is one occasion where the acoustic version of a track feels like a worthy addition to an album, rather than just a tack-on track at the end.

The production is top notch and the mix is surprisingly clean, again belying the fact that this is an independent release.  Marenna had signed themselves to Lion's Pride Music not too long after this EP was released, and that label is known for their excellent production on their releases.  But this is a self-produced effort, through and through, and I really can't see how they can improve on this effort except with more songs!

Truly a great debut, you would do yourself well to track this little treat down!  I believe it has been reissued with extra tracks, so I may have to chase it down again, myself!

Rating:  A very crankable debut effort!  Give this an 8, with only the album's brevity keeping from 9 territory.  It is really that good!

Back To Reviews Index

TALKIN' TRASH WITH...Anthony Corder (Tora Tora)

In the Spring of 2019, I had the chance to conduct an interview with Anthony Corder, lead vocalist for Tora Tora.  In the midst of getting the interview transcribed and put up on Glitter2Gutter, my office flooded.  Ankle-deep water destroyed a lot of things in my office, including my computer, and the recorder I used was thrown into a box and stuck in the garage.  Fast forward about 10 or 11 months and I have finally been able to salvage most of that interview and am presenting it here.  If it comes across as a bit disjointed, there are small portions of the interview that were lost, and I apologize for that to you, the reader, and to Anthony, who was so cool to talk with and so gracious with his time.  So, here to Talk Some Trash is Anthony Corder of Tora Tora...

G2G:  Hey, Anthony!  Thanks for taking my call and taking some time to talk with us.

Anthony:  Hey man, how's it going?  What's happening?

G2G:  Not much here other than trying to dig out from some snow.

Anthony:  (Laughs)  Aw, man, you guys have had it kind of rough, haven't you?

G2G:  There's been some digging, sure!  How about you and Tennessee?

Anthony:  It's been okay.  It's been like 50 or something today, and it's supposed to get to freezing tonight, but we're not getting anything.  It's been kind of raining and spitting around, but nothing like you guys have been getting.

G2G:  I'll trade you! (Laughter)

Anthony:  (Laughter)  Yeah, no kidding, man!  Y'all've had it for a minute, right?

G2G:  Yeah, we've had a couple of rough weeks.  We've had a couple of days where school has been called off because of ice, and today my kids' school started late because of the snow.  I teach at a different school, and we have classes today, but a lot of area schools don't.

Anthony:  Wow, you're a teacher?  What do you teach?

G2G:  I run an alternative high school classroom for juvenile offenders and troubled youth.  I teach everything.  This semester I'm teaching Personal Finance, English, World History, Physical Science, and Strength and Conditioning.

Anthony:  Holy cow, man!  That's incredible!

G2G:  Well, it keeps me busy! (Laughter)

Anthony:  Seriously, man, that's amazing.  I don't know if you know this, but I'm a teacher, also.

G2G:  I did not know that.  That's cool!

Anthony:  Yeah, I'm the Entertainment Business chair for SAE in Nashville.  It's the Sound and Audio Engineering Institute, but I'm on the Entertainment Business side.

G2G:  That's awesome!  So, I was bothering you in class when I was texting you then!  (Laughter)

Anthony  (Laughter)  No, no, you're not bothering me at all.  Listen, I never thought in a million years that I would teach, man.  I left high school my senior year to do the rock n roll thing, but I went back and got my degrees when I met my wife.  I guess the people that I had around me in my life, my mentors and stuff, they just had this kind of pass it on mentality that, you know, as I gained some experience, maybe I can help somebody that's like me, you know, young and inexperienced in the business.  I just kind of stumbled into it, really.  I started teaching down here in Belmont, and that was kind of because I had worked at record labels and in publishing when I moved to Nashville, and I specifically had been in marketing research, so it was pretty crazy.  Being at the label was kind of like being in school the whole time because you were constantly doing research and stuff, so it was, yeah, it was pretty crazy.  But it was really fun, and for somebody like me, who had been a rock n roll singer, being behind the scenes at record labels and looking at all the different information, we didn't know any of that stuff was going on...(laughter)...we were just like in survival mode!  We were just trying to make sure we showed up in the right place on time with all of our equipment and strings and stuff, you know, just trying to stay organized out there on the road.  But, that was a good education, too.  And so now, I'm kind of at the point where I'm looking at students who come here...it's an expedited program, so they're here for 16 months, which is four quarters...so anyway, I'm working with these students who are going through real quick, but they're working on the areas that they are focused in.  It's pretty cool, you know.  I see them and I remember when I was a kid just getting started, and these kids, they all have great ideas and they're thinking about stuff and just trying to figure it out.  So there's always good energy around these kids.

G2G:  Did you go back to school late, then?  Because, I did, you know...I was actually in radio for a number of years before I went back and got my teaching degree.

Anthony:  Yeah, man, I met my wife when I was about 30, and so, we were...my son was born, and I was still travelling, even after the tour I was still singing and playing a bit, and I just felt like I wanted to take a time out and be home with them for a while.  So, I talked to her and told her I wanted to come home, but I didn't know what to do.  I'd been singing my whole life.  But she encouraged me, and she was like, well, if you want to you could go update yourself in the music industry, you know because the whole world had shifted because of the digital realm of things.  And, so, that was like the early 2000, and it was like the perfect chance for me to say, you know what, I can do a little bit of retrospect and see the things that happened to me, and then kind of prepare for where we're headed.  Which, we're still...man, I'm telling you...it just blows my mind because I see all the potential that the up-and-coming generation has, and I'm like, man, these guys are gonna change the world because of the reach that you guys have with a 24 hour per day, 365 day per year storefront for your music to go direct to your audience.  And that's pretty amazing, you know.  We were more boots on the ground during our whole career when we were doing it before, so to be doing something now, as far down the line as we are, and to still be the four original guys walking into what's going on now with the technology and all that...man, it just blows us away.  We see the potential maybe more than these kids do, I guess.

G2G:  Do any of your students know who you are or who Tora Tora is?

Anthony:  (Laughs)  No, man, they don't know.  I mean, its funny, cuz I kinda said something to them just recently because the record (Bastards Of Beale) is getting ready to come out, you know.  But I bring real life applications of things that are happening to me, and I bring it into the classroom and we'll talk about stuff.  It's not like I'm trying to turn them onto our stuff, or whatever, but...(laughs)...they kinda laugh because a lot of the kids I deal with are urban, you know...they're in a box with ProTools, building beats and stuff, and wanting to do rap and stuff like that, and I'm  like, I'm a rock n roll dude...

G2G:  (Laughter)

Anthony: (Laughter)  So, they get really tickled when they see the music video or something and they're like, "Oh my God, is that really you singing?!"  (Laughter)  And it's just really funny.  But it's a lot of fun, and you know, I don't think a lot of these guys were probably even born when Tora Tora was around before.  These kids are young, like right outta high school, or maybe early 20s, so...  But it's fun.  There's an Events & Touring class, and I'll bring in real stuff, like information off of our touring contract and show them, you know, not the literal things that we're doing, but just like an example of, hey, this is how it kind of works out there in the real world.  And for some kids its kind of an eye-opener, I think.

G2G:  Did you think there was any way in the world that in 2019 Tora Tora would have a new album to even talk to the kids about?

Anthony:  Man, we couldn't believe it! We're so, I mean we're like a bunch of little kids.  We talk to each other all the time, we text, we send each other little notes.  I mean...in the back of my mind, at least for me, personally, I always hoped that we would get together and record something again.  We just couldn't really figure out a time that worked.  We all kind of stepped away to raise our families, to be honest with you.  You know, my children were born and I had gotten kind of to where I didn't want to miss something.  I had traveled some when I very first got married, and I was away for stuff, like Mother's Day or something, and I was out in California, and I called my wife and I was like, look, if I'm not at the point where you're gonna be coming with me, then I think I want to take a time out from all of this and just come home.  And, until my children were like five years old, I was with them every morning when they woke up, an we'd just be home, like rollin' around in our underwear... (laughs)

G2G:  (Laughter) I'm a Dad, I get it...

Anthony:  Yeah, man, I'm not kidding, right?  And until I started at the record labels up here in Nashville...I ended up being a transplant here in Nashville with the record labels...and until I did that I was with them every day.  And when they got old enough to be in preschool, I kinda jumped back into the business side of things, you know.  But, back to the record, you know, it's been wild.  To be 2019 and for us to have an opportunity again.  I mean, we owe everything to the Frontiers people for giving us the platform and the opportunity, and it just landed at the right time.  It just all landed at the right time.  We've all said this in other interviews and stuff, that the planets just lined up.  We were all together at the end of 2016, going through some heavy personal things, some health stuff with our bass player and stuff.  And we had decided we were going on the Monsters Of Rock Cruise and there's a girl, April Lee, who had talked to us and had said, "just block out some time and go.  You're gonna love it.  You're gonna love all the fans and the seeing the bands and everybody again," and so we had that on our radar.  And so Patrick (Francis, bass player for Tora Tora) got a clean bill of health and he just told us, "man, I wanna just go play gigs.  I don't care where we're going, I just want to see the people we were playing with and just hang out and play songs." We all kinda had a new perspective, and for it to be the four original guys, we've been friends since high school, so 30 years now, and Patrick and Kieth, our guitar player and bass player have known each other since they were eight years old, so we've known each other a long time.  I mean, we're still telling each other the same dumb jokes and stuff, but, we didn't take it for granted that we were getting to go and spend time together.  We said, you know, our children are getting older and have their own agendas and schedules, so why can't we just get together and goof around together and see what happens.  You know, maybe play a couple of weekends or pick some festivals, and so we just kinda went from there.  It was amazing.  And people would come up to us at shows and be like, "You don't remember me do you?" and we would be like, "Well, I remember partying with you..." (laughs) but it was like 20, 25 years ago, you know.  It was great seeing people and seeing them still singing our songs, you know.  It was amazing.  Anyway, it was awesome and Frontiers Records approached us around that time, so we talked about it and I said, "well, let's go in and see what they say".  And Nick, their US rep, had moved here to Nashville and it turned out he was one exit from my house, my part of town.  So, we met at a little coffee shop and we just sat down and talked.

G2G:  Such a small world sometimes...

Anthony:  I know, right?  And, I had knew about Frontiers and kind of what they were doing, because they had been around for like 20 years.  But, we knew the name through Jimi Jamison, who sang for Survivor.  He was based out of Memphis, and he sang on every Tora Tora thing we did.  If he was home, he'd come to the studio and sing back-ups with us, and he was just awesome.  He always had this kind of mischievous smile on his face, like he was up to something when he would come in.  But, he would encourage us and tell us to just go for it.  Anyway, years later, after Survivor, he had done some solo stuff on Frontiers and I had heard him talking about them and stuff, so I knew the company, and I knew the roster and knew a lot of the bands that were on the label.  We had toured with some of them, you know, back in the day, and it felt like they were putting out quality stuff and it felt like they (Frontiers) were letting the artists have creative control and put out the stuff they wanted to do, and that's basically what we did.  We're doing stuff that we like.  When I hear Keith and them guys play, I think of stale beer and cigarettes, man...(laughs)

G2G:  (Laughter)  Is that a compliment?

Anthony:  (Laughing)  Yeah, man, I feel like I'm 18 when they crank their amps on and stuff, and I'm like, "oh, yeah!  I remember this!"  And then I start singing and I'm like, "whoa...I'm not 18 anymore," you know...(laughs)  But, its just awesome.  There's just something about the four of us together, we've always been playing, even if it wasn't as Tora Tora, and we've always been writing.  It's just something that we're super passionate about.  But doing it with these four guys comin' together, that is the Tora Tora sound, you know, Keith and Patrick and John, each individually on their own instrument but working together as a unit, you know.  It's just fun.  We were super nervous, we didn't know what it was gonna be like, and I think we were all thinking, where's this gonna go, you know.  It was just really natural, though.  Keith had a lot of guitar ideas, but we all contributed to writing and arranging and all that stuff, so it was really fun.  You know, I think the coolest part was having all the technology, because when we did it a long time ago, it was such a different process.  But in this setting, it was such a...more efficient, I guess.  You know, logistically, with me being away from Memphis, we were playing in different places and filming each other and sending each other the different parts so we could learn them.  And I'd be like, "be sure to film your hands so I can see the parts your doing," you know...(laughs)...it was just so fun.  It was one of the most creative things I've done in a really long time.

G2G:  What else would you say has changed after all this time?

Anthony:  Well...we're rested, you know?  I mean, when we went in and started working, we just went crazy.  I think we wrote enough stuff for two records.  We had had all this time off and we just couldn't wait to get going again once we got started.  We had to kind of whittle things down for the record.  It was really funny, because John's got a little rehearsal place for his drums on the side of his house, a little sound-proof thing, so we went there and we kind of did it old-school.  We took out a poster board and stuck it on the wall, then drew some brackets on there and put title on, and we just started checking it off...you know, arrangements, check!  Lyrics, check!...you know, and solos and pre-production...and we just decided to do as much as we could outside of the studio.  We just had all of this new-found energy from being away for so long.  It was like we were those kids again, man.  But we also did this so we could take our stuff and then go into the studio and be really effective and efficient, because we were limited on our time and our budget, so we were like, "we gotta do this really quick".  So, it was awesome to have all that stuff.  So we got together with Jeff Powell, the guy  who produced the record, and we've known him for 25 years...he was an assistant engineer on Wild America...and he's around our age and was kinda starting the same time we were, so we've all grown up together.  And he knew our sound.  He saw us at a show in Memphis, and it was a fund-raiser show for Patrick to raise some money for his medical bills, and we did a DVD, Rock Out Cancer, to raise money, but anyway...all these bands came in...Roxy Blue, the guitar player from Shinedown,

Zach Meyers of Shinedown

Zach Meyers, he was there at Shotgun Billy's.  Anyway, Jeff was there and he wrote me out of the blue later and said, "hey, do you guys wanna come cut a couple of singles with me?"  I mean, he's cutting straight to vinyl out of Sam Phillips' studio in Memphis, and he asks me that, and I said, "man, you're never gonna believe this.  We don't wanna cut two singles, we're gonna do a whole record."  He didn't know we'd been talking to Frontiers, so, scheduling-wise, we had to find the time when he could do it and we could do it.  I think we signed with Frontiers in December of 2017, and we wrote until the late Spring or early Summer of the next year, and we just went in and knocked this thing out.  I think, as far as the actual studio goes, we were in and out of there in like six days.  We cut basic tracks for two days, sang and did solos for two days, and mixed it down after that, and that was it.

G2G:  That's like travelling at light speed for the music industry, isn't it?

Anthony:  (Laughs) It was old-school, you know?  We had all that stuff done in advance, and we did it on purpose because we knew in advance that we had to do it like that budget-wise, and with me travelling...I was going down there on weekends and stuff...so we were just like, let's block out our schedules so that we know when we can do what, and it was actually really refreshing and kind of wild.  I mean, before, when we would do a record, we'd block out a studio for like eight weeks.  I mean, we'd spend a week just getting drum sounds and changing out heads, and trying amps and stuff, but this time it was just real focused, really dialed in.  We knew what we wanted to do.  I mean, Keith, he's been playing through his rig forever, so he has it dialed in with the sounds that he likes, so I think it just made us really efficient.  We were really comfortable, Jeff, having known us for years, he made it real comfortable, and he just said, "you know what?  We're just gonna hit the button and y'all just play," and you know, we did it live.  I mean, I was in an iso-booth for vocals and the band was out in the room, and we did it as close to live as we could.  I mean it was like if we missed a singing part or if my pitch was funny...or I sang the wrong words...(laughs)...I was in an iso-booth so we could go back and fix that part, but for the most part it was pretty much live and it was awesome.  I mean, Keith and them, they had rehearsed stuff without me, they had the arrangements down, so they put in time because they all live really close to each other so they could get together and work on things, and it made things real easy for me.  I just cut out the time to get down there and sing the songs.  It was awesome.  We're so excited, but, you know, we're still a little nervous about what people are gonna say.  I mean, it sounds really different in places.  I mean the vocals, we ended up putting a slap-back on there, just to get the takes, and I ended up telling Jeff, "you know what, man? I like it.  Just leave it."  So, that sounds more like an old Aerosmith record or an old 70s record or something, and so we just left that...so I don't know what people are gonna say, but we're anxious to see what they're gonna say.

G2G:  Well, I liked it a lot, personally.  I mean, I think it sounds like a natural progression for a band that, I mean obviously you've matured and grown, so while it doesn't sound exactly the same, to me it still sounds like Tora Tora.

Anthony:  Thanks, man.  I think it did, too.  After the first time we sat down and started running things together, I was like, "I think this is gonna work."  But, you're right.  We've had a lot of different instances and life experiences and so, yeah...there was a gap from like, I don't know, the mid-90s to the mid-2000s or something, where we weren't very active at all.  I mean, we've always stayed in touch with each other and were always friends.  We never really had a big blowup, a "band's breaking up" kind of thing, we all just said, hey, let's take a break.  Our A&R guy, he had moved from A&M Records to Interscope, he had gotten an offer from a different company, and it was right in the middle of Revolution Day, so we kind of freaked out.  You know, we were really close to him, and he was straight up with us way ahead of time, but he was like, "this is an offer I can't refuse, this is a really big move for me, profile-wise and industry-wise," and so we were...  You know, knowing what I do now about the corporate side of things now, and you know your voice in the corporate wheel is diminished when that change happened, and with us being assigned to someone else to replace him...you know, he wasn't associated with us or invested in us, he was just assigned to us to see Revolution Day through, and it was just different and it was really, really hard.  We had been running wide-open for like six years and then, all of a sudden, everything came to kind of a screeching halt, and that was kind of a hard pill to swallow.  And I think everybody just kind of looked at each other, and we had put a lot of pressure on ourselves because were wanting to try to keep what momentum that we did have going for us, and we just said, let's just take a break.  And for me, I was thinking it would be like a month...(laughs)...but it was quite a while, it was a few years before we got back together to actually do something.  But saying all that, about getting back together and the sound and where we are as people, I think the new record picked up right where Revolution Day left off.  Definitely the lyrics and the concepts and stuff, yeah, we've had different influences and stuff happen, and especially with me living in Nashville, this is kind of a song-writing Mecca, you know, and with me working in publishing for a while, I know that subliminally or through osmosis, that probably had an effect on me just because of the caliber of people that are here, you know.  But, we're still just having fun.  Every song on this record is about our experiences and hanging out with the people on the road.  We think of them as our extended family, you know.  We got this little hashtag we're doing, #ToraTribe, and it's because of them that we're getting an opportunity to do this in the first place.  And we don't take those people for granted.  We know that we're lucky to be given what we like to do.  We love this, and we missed the playing live part.  We just love the chance to get out there in front of the people and play again, you know.

G2G:  How odd is it for you to say something like "hashtag ToraTribe" coming from where you were 25, 30 years ago?

Anthony:  (Laughs)  Yeah, man, it's so weird.  I mean, this is a whole different approach for us.  I mean we had street teams and newsletters, but we're all about being there, in person.  I mean, I still think that is the most powerful way to make an impression on somebody, but I also know that these are tools that we have to use.  And, to me, it's incredible the reach that you have!  We're talking to people in Japan that remember us from a long time ago, that have flown here and seen us, they've come to Memphis to see Tora Tora, you know...it's just...there's people from all over the place, and it kinda freaks you out!  (Laughs)  But, yeah, to say #ToraTribe?  Yeah, I'd have never thought that in a million years.  It's funny, but we enjoy it.  It's a lot of fun.

G2G:  Now you brought up Revolution Day, and I'm not sure...well, I'm sure you were probably aware of it...but there was a time when that was one of the most widely bootlegged albums of the genre out there, you know?  I mean, I had a boot of it...

Anthony:  Oh, yeah...we know...

G2G:  So was it just the A&R guy, or the grunge movement, or what was it that led to Revolution Day being shelved for quite a long time?

Anthony:  I mean, definitely, the shift in the music scene had an effect on things.  I mean, we were feeling that on Wild America.  That was in '92, right there when it started really shifting, and you know...  My personal opinion is, you know everybody's asked me this on the phone and in interviews, "Did you know grunge was gonna kill your career, and do you have bad feelings toward them," and all that.  And you know, we really didn't.  I mean, we had played shows with Alice In Chains before

they broke out big, or anything, and we just thought they were other rock bands.  We were like, "wow, they sound kinda like Black Sabbath," or whatever, and we played a few shows with them, with Alice In Chains, we bumped into them in Memphis, ran into them in the studios out in L.A., and stuff.  We never even thought of the grunge movement crushing everything, we were just like, you know, it's rock n roll, you know.  It's like rock radio a long time ago, you know you'd hear Zeppelin and Aerosmith and all these different bands, and they all sounded different, so we didn't think anything would change, that the stations would just still play everyone, you know.  We didn't think that it was gonna come in and...you know, from the music industry side of things, at the end of the 80s and the 90s, a lot of the production and stuff on the records sounded a lot alike, the singers started to sound alike, it was kind of homogenized, and when something came around that was organic and authentic, and raw, it was refreshing to people and I think they just said, "wow, that's something I haven't heard lately," you know.  It was hard on us, because it totally affected our records and their performance, you know, and how they were doing and stuff.  The opportunities that we had started slowing down because other bands were stepping up and filling slots.  But it was really a lot of things.  I think the A&R guy stepping down definitely was a big piece of the puzzle because he was our voice in the corporate setting.  But, yeah, the music was shifting and we just kind of always stayed in our own lane, musically.  I also think it was a geographic thing to a degree, with our location and stuff, you know; we never relocated out to L.A. and did the Hollywood thing, we always stayed based in our roots.  So it all blended together, sure.  But, yeah, that record, we knew about the bootleg stuff, and I think originally it was at a different speed...I think somebody got it off of a cassette or some kind of mp3s...

G2G:  It's bad.  It sounded bad.  As I said, I had a bootleg of it and I threw it away when the real deal came out...

Anthony:  We decided we might as well put something out that at least has the right tempos and the right quality and stuff, so we had some access to some of the demos and stuff...we couldn't use masters because that was stuff that A&M owned...but we had access to some of the tracking that we had done for the record, and so Keith and I talked about it, and we talked with some of the other powers that be that were involved with the projects, and we just went with a way we could still get it out.  I mean, I still think it sounded good, even though it wasn't like the finished product or anything.  Every now and then there's like a glitch in the guitar or my singing is kinda off, or something, but I think it was really good for what we could do.  And I still really like those songs, we were proud of what we put together, it's just...it is what it is.  But with that record, and with the whole scene, I think things just played out the way they were supposed to, really.  You know, we were all kind of in a weird place with that record and stuff, and I think stepping away was the right thing to do at the time.

G2G:  How much damage...or benefit...was done to the band by getting lumped in as a "hair metal" band, because really weren't.  You were more of a blues-rock band.  I mean, sure, the Wild America title track kind of rocked toward that Hollywood sound a little bit but, for the most part, you guys were always a bluesy, some people call it hard southern rock...whatever...but you were never hair metal, and you never did the Hollywood thing.

Anthony:  Well, you know, I never really minded being clumped in with all those people.  I mean, we were fans of a lot of those guys...I mean I had Motley Crue, Hanoi Rocks, Bon Jovi, I had all those guys on my walls at home, you know, posters hanging everywhere.  And, really, we wanted to be like those guys, we wanted to be...you know, Keith and those guys were heavier.  They liked Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and stuff like that, and I was more kind of a...I don't know what I was, man...(laughing)...I was kind of an acoustic, hippie kinda dude.  I listened to everything, from pop to...you know, I didn't realize until I got older how much my family influenced me.  We're all from Mississippi, down in the delta, and they're all a bunch of porch pickers, you know.  My mom and her siblings, they all sang country and R&B and gospel, and my aunt and uncle are the first ones to show me chords on a guitar.  They showed me stuff like Neil Young and James Taylor...some Boston...stuff like that.  They were about ten years older than me, so they were introducing me to different stuff.  My aunt introduced me to KISS, which totally corrupted me.  I mean she was like 16 and I was like 6...(laughs)...she played Destroyer, man...I'll never forget it.  She had the 1976 poster on her wall, you know the one with the drummer who has the blood on his head in the do-rag and stuff, and she played "God Of Thunder", and it scared me to death!  (Laughs)  Those demon voices at the beginning, I ran off...(laughing)...but then I was like, "I wanna go back in there!"  And then "Detroit Rock City" came on, and "Shout It Out Loud", and I mean, dude, I was hooked on KISS!  She totally got me into them.  And me and my cousin, we grew up Southern Baptists, and our parents wouldn't let us join the KISS Army, you know, and we live wayyy out in the middle of the sticks in Mississippi, just out in nowhere, but there was a guy who lived about a quarter of a mile from us that got into the KISS Army, and we would go to his house and he would get out the stuff, lay out the belt buckles and picks and stuff, and we would just lay there and look at this stuff.  And talk about merchandising, I mean, to get this stuff out to the middle of nowhere Mississippi..I mean, they were incredible marketers.  Anyway, that had a profound effect on me, and my aunt singing and playing...we were really close, and she turned me onto all kind of stuff,, it wasn't just KISS, but everything from the Beatles to...God, I don't even know...Elton John...and when I got older, I began to realize, you know, she's playing all these records and I didn't realize how much of an influence it was having on me until I got bigger.  But she had a lot of patience and was a huge influence on me in my formative years when I was trying to figure out what I was.  I was never a great picker or anything, but she showed me enough chords that I could start writing my own stuff, and I kind of launched off out of that.

G2G:  When Tora Tora was kind of on their hiatus there for a while, especially with your location and such, and with the bluesier style you incorporated into your sound, was there ever a draw or a pull to try the Nashville thing?

Anthony:  You know, that's a great question.  Not really.  We came here a couple times, actually.  We wrote with a guy named Taylor Rhodes that worked with Kix.  We had toured with Kix and we loved their sound and their records, I mean I'm still a huge fan.  I mean, Steve Whiteman's voice, to this day, it's still great.  I'm gonna see him in like a week on Monsters Of Rock, I can't wait.

G2G:  Love Kix!  I actually had Hot Wire in today!

Anthony:  Yeah, man, they're great!  And Steve's got great vocal chops.  Anyway, Taylor lived here and we worked together on "Amnesia" and "Faith Healer" with him, which were two of the singles off of Wild America, and then he worked with us again on Revolution Day; we wrote a song called "Shelter Me From The Rain", that I still love.  I love the songs that we wrote with him and he always had kind of a different take.  But we never did the Music Row thing. I mean, I was a member of BMI, and they have an office here, but I don't think I ever went in that building until after I was a member for like 15 years, or something.  We just never...if we got even close to Memphis, even on tours, we just went home.  I mean, as far as Nashville, I think we only played here maybe three or four times in our whole career, because if we got within three or so hours of Memphis, we were gonna head on home to the house, you know.  And we could cash in on shows at home, and we would stay home for long periods of time back then.  But as far as Nashville and that, there wasn't anything against it or anything like that, and we wrote with a few people.  There's a guy named Tom DeLuca who wrote on the first record, and he came from Nashville to Memphis specifically to write with us.  He wrote on "Guilty", the second single, with us.  So, we had some connections up here, but like I said, we came up here maybe three, four times for real specific reasons.  I mean, the record label did some homework, and we had thought about it, but they're different up here.  I'm a transplant here,  been here for 13 years or 14 years, and I love Nashville and the creative people, and it's real eclectic like Memphis, but there's definitely an infrastructure and a corporate setting to Nashville, which is good and bad.  I mean the corporate thing means that they're generating money and creating opportunity, which is what I think is missing in Memphis.  I mean, Memphis is exactly like Nashville as far as being musical and eclectic and all that, but Nashville has that corporate machine thing that Memphis really doesn't have, you know.  So it's just different.  Memphis is just really different.  It's like any other river city, it's real transient with a lot of people that are moving through the area that are trying to find their way.  And if you go up the river, you know, to Louisville or St. Louis, or Chicago if you go way up, it's gritty...it's different.  Those towns just got soul.  Not that Nashville doesn't have soul, because there's a lot of good people here, it's just...I don't know.  I'm biased, I guess, because I grew up down there...

G2G:  Going way back to the beginning with your indy album you guys put out, "To Rock, To Roll", which I saw the other day FnA Records is actually pressing on CD finally...

Anthony:  (Laughs)  Yeah, man...

G2G:  How did that feel for you when you realized, regional or not, that's us on that cassette there?

Anthony:  It was pretty amazing.  There was a guy by the name of Malcolm Reichart, who was a local DJ in Memphis back in the day, and he had a show that he would play local musicians on.  And a lot of what happened in Memphis in the late 80s had to do with the support of the venues and guys like him pushing original material.  And because of that, there was opportunity, there were executive showcases and producer showcases, and record executives and management companies were coming to Memphis, and it was kinda like a hot streak for a minute.  I mean, I know it was a reflection of everything that was happening in L.A. but it had kind of spilled over and Memphis had a bunch of studios and stuff, and a bunch of activities and resources.  And that radio station would play your stuff.  So you could cut your demos, or your master cuts, and everybody was vying for that slot on that show, and it was real good competition.  I mean, it was friendly competition because we knew that if somebody else was doing good, it would bring attention to give you a shot to get out in front of some people, too.  So, it was competitive but in good spirits; we were all kind of trying to see if somebody could break out of there, you know.  You know, hearing your song on the radio was amazing, man.  We were all still in high school, you know.  We had our friends calling the radio station, and we were running advertisements for parties we were throwing in town, and the DJ would advertise it on the air (laughs) and it was...it was just a different time.  It was so weird and so awesome...it was just...it was crazy.

G2G:  Do you remember the first song you had played on that show?

Anthony:  I think it was a song called "Wasted Love".  It's a song that's on that EP, and I believe that was the one that we did first.  But, "Phantom Rider" was the one that broke out off that EP.  It became like a Top 5 most-requested song in the region because of that DJ.  And the guy that signed us to A&R Records told us he knew he was gonna sign us because he got to Memphis and he had to rent a car.  And he said when he rented the car, he turned the radio on and our song, "Phantom Rider" was playing.  And, so, that was pretty powerful for us, you know, to be some local kids and have our stuff playing.  Now, Keith, our business-minded kind of dude, he was kind of like a little entrepreneur.  He was going out and cutting deals with the record stores and he would get our stuff on consignment just to get it into the stores.  And he'd ask if he could put our stuff by the registers, just so our friends would see it when they came in, and they'd say, "Yeah, you can do that!" so that's really how we kind of got it going.

G2G:  So how did that lead to Surprise Attack?

Anthony:  We ended up signing a production deal with Ardent Studios.  We won some studio time

through a Battle of the Bands, and we went in and the guy who was the engineer for the day ended up going to the studio and asking us if they would consider signing us to a production deal. He actually had worked with us on a couple of songs, and he played piano on "Phantom Rider", the first version, so they became kind of the middle man for us in regards to everything in the entertainment industry.  They ended up shopping us to labels.  We showcased in the rehearsal space we were in, it was big enough to hold maybe four to five hundred people, maybe.  So we had the record label people come to where we rehearsed, to a party, actually (laughs), and they kind of listened and talked to us, and the A&M guy was one of the more genuine guys there.  He stuck around and talked to us and stuff, and we really liked him.  So we went to the Ardent guys and said, "hey, we really liked this A&M guy, can we maybe go and talk to them?"  And that's what happened, you know.  The guy, the name of the engineer was Paul Ebersol, and he worked with another guy named Joe Hardy, who had done all the ZZ Top stuff, and they both produced the first record with us.  And, you know, we owed them both a lot.  Joe actually recently passed away, which was some unexpected news.  But he had had tons of success, and for him to sign onto the record gave us a lot of credibility in the industry, because people were watching to see what he was working on because of his successes, you know, like Eliminator for ZZ Top.  And everything those guys were putting out at that time was just blowing up, so that gave us a little bit of momentum and, you know, he didn't have to do that for us, and we're just so thankful.  You know, Paul went on to do great things, he did work with Three Doors Down later on, and had all kinds of success.  So, it was cool because we all kind of started out together and grew up in the business like that.

G2G:  Do you remember what it was like when the label first told you guys, "Ok, the record's great and all, but we need videos now"?

Anthony:  (Laughs)  Yeah, we did.  I remember we shot videos, and it was big budget stuff back then, you know.  Video could make or break you.  It was different.  Remember, we were just kids back then, and we were under a big label and stuff, and so it was a crazy experience.  We were way into those things.  They were fun.

G2G:  I remember there was a video for "Guilty", and I'm sure there was one for "Walkin' Shoes"...

Anthony:  Yeah, man.  Actually, we're getting ready to drop a new single next week right before the record comes out.  It's called "Son Of A Prodigal Son", and we actually went down to Beale Street to a place called Handy Hall, in Memphis, and that's actually where we shot "Walkin' Shoes".  It's still the same bar sitting there on Beale Street, and we went there 30 years later!  (Laughs)  It was really nostalgic and emotional, man.  I took my children with me and I told them, "guys, I was your age the last time I was in here shooting a video", you know.  I have three children, 18, 16, and 14, three boys, and I just said, "man, this is where we shot 'Walkin' Shoes'".

G2G:  I think "Son Of A Prodigal Son" is one of the best songs on the record!

Anthony:  Oh, man, thank you!  We were kind of interested how...it's kind of a different song.  There's a couple of them, that one and "Silence The Sirens", those are two outliers.  The rest of the record is pretty straight ahead Tora stuff.  We worked with a guy out of WA Films out of Memphis who had just done some work with a group of friends of ours called The Dirty Streets.  They are a young, three-piece rock band and man, they kick ass...we just did a show with them in December and they were amazing.  So, they turned us on to those guys and they made it real easy for us, I mean...we hadn't shot a video in a long time, and these guys were just consummate professionals.  We just had a lot of fun and it ended up being real easy.  But, like I say, it's been a long time.  When you were talking about the "Walkin' Shoes" videos and all that, all that technology back then was new, believe

it or not.  Because of the video outlets and MTV and stuff, that was just the way you did things back then, and you'd get a video and then you'd get on the radio, not usually the other way around.  It's just so different now days.  And from a business standpoint, Ardent Studios ended up putting together a video department because they saw that video was just gonna be part of doing business, so they jumped in.  That was one thing about the guy who ran the company, John Fries, he was continually educating himself.  He actually started the company in his mom's sewing room, or his grandmother's sewing room, when he was like 14, and it's been around 60 years now.  He's had everyone from Zeppelin mixed in there to the ZZ Top people to the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Stevie Ray Vaughn...I mean...we were just blown away by the people that were coming through the door back then, it was crazy.

G2G:  You made me laugh just now because other than people like me, who grew up in the Midwest or Great Plains, like here in Nebraska, or like you in the South, nobody knows what a sewing room is!

Anthony:  (Laughs)  Oh, yeah, man!  That's funny!  Listen, John Fries, he passed away a couple of years ago, but every decision I ever made in my life from about the time I was 16, I talked to that dude.  And, we were laughing about the sewing room thing... (laughs)

G2G:  (Laughter)

Anthony:  But, we came along in a time when, you know, if you didn't have a piece of equipment, you had to make it, I mean you had to go solder it together or weld it and make it yourself.  But, John, he was real technology driven, education driven, and he was all about educating yourself, and he was on the cutting edge of technology all the time.  I remember one time, he bought a machine, it was a keyboard with a computer built in, and there's no telling what it cost back then, but he was like "we need it", because it's the newest thing out and we want to be competitive.  So he had his engineers in there, learning how to work it, and he was just an amazing guy.  There's not hardly a day goes by that I don't think about him.  He had a huge impact on my life, not only just as an artist or a singer, but as a person, both personally in my life and professionally.  I just...I just can't say enough good things about the Ardent people.  They totally changed our life.  We went from being this little garage band in high school to being full-blown, out on the road, riding round in buses, playing arenas and colosseums.  It was crazy.

G2G:  How wild did those days get, back in the days of Surprise Attack and Wild America?  I'm not looking for horror stories, or "we tore that hotel room up" stories, but how surreal was it for four kids from the South to all of a sudden be on television and on the radio?

Anthony:  It was, honestly...it went by so fast that we didn't honestly get to take it all in.  I mean, we had the time of our lives, we didn't miss much.  But that was our mentality from the very beginning, we were just like, man, let's ride the lightning.  If something good happens, great, you know.  Keith and I had been cutting grass for a living.  (Laughs)  My mom was a real estate agent, and we were cutting yards, being little teen-ager kids, and we were like, "wouldn't it be cool if we could record", and then it was "wouldn't it be awesome if we could talk to somebody about getting a record deal", and then, all of a sudden, these things were just kind of landing in place.  And the next thing we knew, we had a song out, and "Walkin' Shoes" went to number one on Hard 60 that was on in the afternoons, right after school, prime time.  People called in and voted and "Walkin' Shoes" went to number one and we didn't even know it!  We were out on the road somewhere and somebody told us.  And, anyway, all of a sudden, it just took off, and so for about two years, we were touring really heavy off of that one single.  So, it was quite the ride.  We took three of our best friends out as crew guys, so there was like seven of us, and we were like a little group of Vikings, you know (laughs).  We were little kids who just didn't know what was goin' on, you know, but we were ready to go conquer, whatever it was, you know.  None of us were afraid.  We were all just like, let's go do this thing!  We had never traveled before we put Surprise Attack out, so when we went out the first time, our eyes were as big as saucers.  We were like...there was a whole big world out there that we didn't know anything about, and we loved it.  (Laughs)  And we didn't want to go home!  We called A&M and said, hey, if you'll leave us out here, we'll work.  We just wanted to work and have fun and keep the ride going.  And we were lucky.  They gave us a lot of support and kept us out on the road and gave us a lot of opportunities to get in front of audiences and putus on some good bills.  They had good strategies, and it was just...man.  When I'm talking about it, like with you, it's like I'm talking about somebody else, because it feels like another life, but man, it was so fun.

G2G:  Anybody that you went out on the road with that really took you under their wing and said, "Hey guys, this is the way we need to do this.  We're gonna have fun but we still gotta stay professional and this is what we're doing"?

Anthony:  Well, part of that, I guess...one of our favorite tours was, we went on tour with LA Guns and Dangerous Toys, and that was one of the funnest experiences that we ever had.  When we pulled
up to the hotel, I think it was in Dayton, Ohio, or somewhere, and the tour manager said, "meet in the bar at 7:00," and we were like, "oh, man, they're laying the law down," or whatever.  So, we walked in and all the LA Guns guys were there and they all had drinks and they just said, man, get ready to have the time of your freaking life, man.  Because, you know, they had been out for a while playing, and they kind of had the deal down.  And the Dangerous Toys guys, they were from Texas, and we kind of had a Southern connection and we enjoyed talking to them right away.  I think we were out with them for like 8 weeks, and that was one of the craziest experiences that any of us ever had.  And I think that was...I think at the end they finally just made us, they had to separate everybody.  It was like herding cats, we were all over the place and all hanging out with each other at the ends of shows and we'd get all tangled up and get on different buses and lose people and...it was crazy fun.  We basically...for us, it was our college years, you know, and we were out on the road with our buddies from Memphis, and so we were doing what everybody else was doing, we just kept waking up somewhere different every day, you know...

G2G:  Trust me, that college experience doesn't require you to be in a band!  (Laughter)

Anthony:  (Laughter)  I know, right?!  But, it was just the most crazy ride.  And that was our college education.  I mean, if we weren't out on the road, we were at Ardent, driving them crazy.  We'd come home and record a few demos, and they'd be wanting us to get right back out on the road.  You know, it was all part of that "idle hands" kind of mentality.  We were...you know, it was actually work being out on the road, so that kind of kept us out of trouble because we didn't have these big crews, these big entourages, we had to, like, work, you know.  So...when we got home and we got settled in, that's when we'd start going honky tonkin' and all that stuff.  But that time, it was all just a crazy experience.  I still talk to Jason (McMaster) from Dangerous Toys from time to time.  His voice is still great, he's still a great front man.  He's playing a bunch.  He's in three or four bands, he does the Broken Teeth thing, and he's in a band called Watchtower, and he still does the Dangerous Toys stuff, but they're pretty selective about the dates they do now.  The business is so different now for all of us than it was back then.  You know, we're not on radio, we don't have video outlets like we used to have, so bands like them and us, we're trying to be savvy and smart with what we do.

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Sadly, that is where things cut off on what I was able to recover of this fun, long interview.  Anthony was so fun to talk to and would talk about just about anything that we ended up spending almost 75 minutes together on the phone, and I hope to get the chance to Talk Trash with him again some time.  If you haven't yet, be sure to check out their newest album. Bastards of Beale, as well as their back catalog and the FnA releases of demos and studio rarities from Tora Tora.  And, if they are in your neck of the woods, be sure to stop and say hi to them, as Anthony has stated many times they love to hear from their fans.

Here's a live video of the guys on the 2019 Monsters Of Rock Cruise performing "Walkin' Shoes"...

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