Steve Cropper - Fire It Up (Provogue/Mascot Label Group) [Matt Bladen]
There are few guitarists with a resume that can be be considered truly legendary. Steve Cropper falls into that category, even if you don't know his name you'll recognise him as one of the three guitar players in The Blues Brothers band along with Matt 'Guitar' Murdoch and bassist Donald 'Duck' Dunn. Cropper is not only a founding member of the World Famous Rhythm & Blues Revue but he also played guitar/co-wrote/produced such soul/blues classics as (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding, Midnight Hour by Wilson Pickett, Green Onions by Booker T & The MG's as well as laying down the riffs for Hold On I'm Comin and Soul Man by Sam & Dave, all while part of the STAX records house band. In addition to that he's played with Ringo Starr, John Lennon and Rod Stewart, so you see what I mean about legendary.
Signing to Mascot Label Group this is Cropper's first solo record since 1969, but in the intervening years 'The Colonel' hasn't lost a step, writing an album full of slick as hell Soul/R&B numbers that have been in his head for years but haven't been written down as yet. The advent of the pandemic and lockdown sees Cropper finally giving these ideas life with the assistance of long term collaborator Jon Tiven who co-produced with Cropper. What shows here from the opening chords is experience, there aren't many musicians with such a large volume of work so you can expect the songwriting, playing and production to beb spot on throughout.
But despite this being a solo album, Cropper doesn't take all the glory, he has always been a collaborative songwriter so the songs are built around being what's best for the band, shifting the instrumental sections to fit with Roger C. Reale's gritty, incendiary, blues/soul vocals. She's So Fine having that R&B jam sound to it. He's got a properly 'old' set of pipes that come right out of the 60's, perfect for the bubbling organs and funky plucking of the title track, this is very clearly the start of the engines allowing for the more soulful One Good Turn add more brass, it's in a twosome like Far Away and Say You Don't Know Me that Cropper's musical prowess is on display at it's best.
Not as heavy as most of what we do here, but Cropper is musical hero of mine (and Blues Brothers is one of my top 5 films of all time) so when the opportunity came up to review this album I couldn't pass it up. Experienced, influential rock/soul/blues music from one of the originators, guaranteed to get you grooving. 8/10
This is the third album from the Italian Power Metal quintet and if you were relieved that they had dialled back the Symphonic elements on their sophomore Crowned In Frost, then this will probably tick the boxes for you, as its first and foremost a Power Metal album - although those understated technical hints and flourishes are still there if you want them. And this is the very traditional European field of Power Metal we are talking here, with all the pseudo-mythological thematic and lyrical tropes and structures, but falling short of an overall album concept (as let’s face it there’s more than enough of those out there). It’s also a slightly tonally darker and heavier record than many in the genre with a brisk and musically tight freshness, making this a welcome relief from the endless multitude of ‘cookie cutter’ Power records currently drowning the marketplace.
That said there’s an element of contradiction in that tonal element, as singer Giada “Jade” Etro retains her characteristic lighter vocal touch, with the heaviness largely exuding from the thundering moody rhythm section and the odd extreme vocal line from a guest turn from Volturian‘s Federica Lanna, the contrast of which works very well. That said, she does give something more belting a go with their cover of Judas Priest’s Night Crawler, and I have to say if she had sung more like that on the rest of the album then I would have been a bit more generous with my bag of points. It’s moments like this when the more Traditional Metal elements are raised over the Power ones that this album works best – The Lone Stranger being a good example, and the out and out Speed Metal of Crown Eternal which is one of Lanna’s guest slots.
No Power Metal album is complete without a lengthy epic track to close out and the lovely solo keyboard intro of Tales Of The Forest segues into the epic nine minute closer Blood On The Snow which lulls you into thinking this is going to be a bit predictable with it’s Folk metal opening chords before changing direction completely. Musically it’s also by far the strongest song on the record as the relentless rhythm work is allowed to come to the fore, making this by far the most overtly Metal track on the disc. This is hugely supported by those extreme male vocal tones again and providing a slightly Modern almost Metalcore feel to this track. It must be said that if the heavier songs are taken in isolation from the pure Power ones, then you might be forgiven for thinking that you were listening to two completely different bands. If this heavier direction is going to continue to grow, then this band have a lot more potential in the ridiculously over-crowded Power Metal genre as these songs are head and shoulders above the rest. 7/10
Wednesday 13 - Necrophaze: Antidote (Nuclear Blast) [Matt Bladen]
The driving, punky Your Mother Still Sucks Cocks In Hell opens up this four track EP from Schlock Rock icon Wednesday 13. Based on horror movies (obviously), even the album cover harks to those 80's slasher flicks. Your Mother... takes influence from The Exorcist but gives it a chauvinistic lyrical adaptation. Screwdriver 2 - The Return a musical sequel to a video nasty. Both are full of the spunky, Wednesday 13 schlock rocking but where this EP is of interest is with the two covers, the first a darker version of INXS'Devil Inside but the final song Films is a little too similar to the Gary Numan original, but does feature Alice Cooper's daughter Calico with additional vocals. Necrophaze - Antidote doesn't change anything about the music of Wednesday 13 for me, it's a bit too one dimensional, but this a little bit of fan service while fans wait for a new album. 5/10
Arogya – Genesis (Out Of Line Music) [Simon Black]
I seem to have had a crash course on the Indian Metal scene recently and have to confess that largely I know very little about it. Take that up another notch for Arogya, who have the distinction of being the first Nepalese band I have come across. That’s my problem of course, because I have well and truly had my expectations and preconceptions challenged by what I have heard recently. The problem is one of marketing I suspect. Until recently I was not aware that India and its environs have a burgeoning and lively Metal scene, although this was not always so – the problem is that over here in the West we are largely unaware of it, given that EU and USA tastes predominate, as that’s what the labels over here know. (The last ten years has seen a boom in bands from India, Demonic Resurrection and Bloodywood being the main examples - Ed)
Musically this is very crisply delivered and melodic stuff, with some great melodies and moody musical delivery. As is often the case with this sub-genre, the keyboard and synth work is very strong in the mood and mix, but don’t underestimate the heaviness that comes when drums, bass and guitars turn on the Metal and single Broken nails this perfectly and has a cracking video to accompany it, which tells me that this band have Global ambitions and the right kind of support to break out of their geographical confines. And I really hope they do
Arogya seem to be coming on in leaps and bounds for a band that have only been active for four years however and for this their all-important third album have managed to engage the services of Germany’s Lord Of The Lost’s frontman Chris Harms as producer, which if nothing else might give them a floor to sleep on if they ever play shows there. The sound he has given this rather polished sounding piece of Modern Synth Metal is clear, focused and crisp as a frosty morning. At thirty-eight minutes of run time and ten tracks of to the point music delivery it does not drag or out stay its welcome either.
You can pretty much take any track and get a strong sense of the album overall - this doesn’t mean it’s repetitive, it means it’s an album that flows by effortlessly and before I had realised I had actually spun it three times before putting fingers to keyboard on this one, which is either a sign that I have bad news to break, or that I really like it. In this case it’s the latter and that’s all the more unusual in that this is not a genre of Metal that normally appeals to me, but the rather different sounding song-writing, unexpectedly mature and rich vocal and instrumental delivery combined with a the production polish makes for a remarkably all round strong piece of music. 8/10