Hello. My name is Kirsten and I am a Jericholic.
Just in case you don’t already know, Chris Jericho, the lead singer of Fozzy, successfully combines his role as rock god with that of a multi time belt holder in WWE.
Is he just a case of jack of all trades, or is actually rather good at multi-tasking?
From the start of Fozzy’s career, which was always treated as a bit of a joke (like most wrestlers secondary careers are)Jerichohas had the brilliance of Rich Hall’s guitar work backing him up, which has always given the band a certain amount of credibility and authenticity. This is fairly lucky, because vocallyJerichodoes seem to have quite a range on him. From 80s style hair rock melodic scale tripping, to Children of Bodom-esqe growling he pretty much covers all bases.
The album starts with plinky-plonky keyboards playing Incy Wincy Spider – albeit with slightly altered lyrics. Warning – arachnophobes do not listen to “Spider in my Mouth”! Luckily it soon breaks into churning guitar with rhythmic drum and bass.
“Sandpaper” is a little more melodious, with almost Bruce Dickinson style vocals.
“Blood Happens” is a wonderful smorgasbord of genres – guitar riffs abound withJerichoboth roaring and singing his way through the song.
And then we come to the power ballad – a metal album requisite. Luckily “Inside my Head” does have a fairly catchy & head banging chorus! With the soaring guitar, I can see that one being an absolute crowd pleaser when played live.
The album pretty much continues on in the same vein. Most tracks are very easily sung along to, but all a little too reminiscent of previous Fozzy releases. All a bit samey and heard this before. You can absolutely hear the influences of Motley Crue, Poison, a bit of G’n’R and all those bands you hope that nobody reminds you that you still own the t-shirt! Saying that, I suspect I will be humming “My Dark Passenger” for days to come.
The letdown of the whole album is the final track “Storm the Beaches” which although I can just see the US market lapping up the patriotic sentiment with the marching drums and horns and machine gun guitar, I detested.
(7/10 Kirsten Gibson-Saxty)
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