Cky
Island
The oddly titled opening cut, "98 Quite Bitter Being," kicks off with a great funk-alternative-metal beat. A great, energetic song reminding me of classic Deep Purple meets Nine Inch Nails. The song has an incredibly catchy hook which will stick in your head for days! The second track, again, has musical qualities of old-school Deep Purple (with a guitar riff reminiscent of the "In Rock" era) mixed with Ministry/Nails-like industrial grooves and explosions. Very cool shit. Great musicianship as well with very interesting vocals from guitarist/vocalist Deron Miller (I could do with out some of the heavy reverb affects, though). Cky embrace many musical influences, from classic rock (hints of Floyd, Beatles and Purple) to '80s new wave to current industrial and techno beats. Track four, "The Human Drive In HiFi" sounds like a modern techno version of an old Gary Numan/Thomas Dolby song while the following track, "Lost In A Contraption" has a great middle-eastern groove, very original and diverse, reminding me much of the underrated Canadian band The Tea Party. Some tracks try to portray humor, but just come off sounding stupid, like the song "My Promiscuous" [with the idiotic chorus "I caught My Daughter Giving Head To My Brother"]. In fact, from this track on, the CD begins to sound very repetitive. There really is nothing terribly interesting by fusing '60s acid rock and modern techno. All in all, a half-assed record, with the first 5 or so tracks sounding cool and the rest sounding like crap.
PETE
Pete
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. new heavy hopeful, the ridiculously named Pete, are a four-piece power-rock band from New Jersey who might not be the most groundbreaking band around, but they do rock pretty damn hard. The opener, "Sweet Daze," is a potent ditty with a cool rhythm guitar hook. An equal mix of alternative rock, grunge, and metal is displayed throughout this disc. Vocalist David Terrana has an impressive, harsh voice which compliments the music well. At times, producer Ross Hogarth uses a bit too much distortion effects on his voice, making him sound like the dude from Filter. It's apparent that Terrana has a raw, powerful, yet incredibly soulful voice that doesn't need the use of heavy effects. The second track, "Drugstore Alibi" is one of the CD's strongest cuts, with a great neck-breaking guitar riff and, once again, great vocal work from Terrana, who sounds like a cross between Scott Weiland and Maynard Keenan. Unfortunately many of the songs that follow, most notably "Burn," "United," and "Bury Me," follow in that typical Pearl Jam, Creed mode (not quite that bad, but you get the picture.) But tracks such as "Cold Cocked," "Awake," and "Is She Coming Up" are very impressive showcasing Terrana's incredible lung power! He sounds like Joe Cocker after taking a crash course in metal. It's great to see that there are still singers that can still sing with balls and soul! I highly recommend this one.
Shockwaves CD Reviews Issue 5 Page 7