Album Reviews

CLUTCH
Pure Rock Fury
(Atlantic)
Heavy rock quartet Clutch hail from Maryland and are stars in the D.C. area. They seem to have taken the eclecticism of their region to heart. As D.C. is on the border between North and South, Yankees and rednecks, so is Clutch standing at the crossroads where different varieties of metal meet. Pure Rock Fury is, in a sense, fusion music, with drummer Jean Paul Gaster's hip-hop happy cans driving guitarist Tim Sult's concrete-thick sludgeriffs into a smooth duet with bassist Dan Maines' distorted bottomfeeding. It's a thick, extra-spicy sauce, like jalapeños in oatmeal. Mixing the gruel with a rusty spoon is Neil Fallon, an exceptionally distinctive vocalist and wordsmith with a gruff howl and a stream-of-consciousness sense of wordplay that lends a welcome sense of absurdity to an often-humorless genre. The band stomps all over the landscape with groove-ridden bashers like "Open Up the Borders" and "American Sleep," nuclear-powered bulldozers like "Smoke Banshee" and the title track and a devastating parody of Limp Bizkit and their ilk called, appropriately, "Careful With That Mic..." They even forge a living link with hard rock history by engaging Mountain leader Leslie West to co-write and riff on the fierce "Immortal." Think metal has hit the doldrums? "Pure rock fury/The solution is so clear," declares Clutch, and they're dead on. Michael Toland

For fans of: Monster Magnet, Helmet, Korn

GNAPPY
Gnappy
(Harlequin, PO Box 2175, Austin, TX 78768)
Austin quartet Gnappy do the jazz/funk bump 'n' grind with grace and fire on their self-titled debut. Bassist Brad Bradburn and drummer Kevin Pearson spank the bottom hard, keeping the cheeks swinging ("Uptown Swing"), grooving ("Track 13") or paddled by the good foot ("Purple Cadillac"). Guitarist Buck McKinney provides the riffs and comping, stepping out only occasionally for concise, tasteful statements of purpose. Saxist Marcus Cardwell provides most the improvisational voodoo, keeping his solos in the pocket, though he also spews some of the tunes' most memorable licks. The band fluidly moves from funkybutt feet-movers like "Black Cabbage" to more composerly fare like "Late For the Short Bus," but their grease truly shines when they combine approaches for a tune like the insidious "Kal-Kan." Equally adept at composing, arranging and performing, Gnappy gets the toes twitching and the brain stem vibrating with stanky aplomb. Michael Toland

For fans of: Medeski Martin & Wood, Liquid Soul, Hairy Apes, BMX

WILL HOGE
Carousel
(Will Hoge)
"When people hear my music, I hope 'honest' is a word that comes up," says Nashville-based singer-songwriter and rock 'n' roll band leader Will Hoge. Indeed, Hoge appears to be a true believer in "honest" rock 'n' roll music. There are heartland hooks aplenty on Carousel and he has garnered a reputation as an energetic, dynamic and hardworking performer. Prior to Carousel the group released a live recording, All Night Long, a testament to their acclaimed live shows. On Carousel, the band, which includes guitarist Dan Baird, displays tasteful restraint while playing with plenty of spirit and enthusiasm, providing soulful backing on all the tracks. Hoge, on the other hand, often comes off as over-the-top in an attempt to sell his sincerity. It is an earnest try at capturing the essence of great heartland rock 'n' roll, but with that comes the responsibility of making it believable and often the over-emoting betrays that. Histrionics have paid off well for a number of singers who lay at the altar of Springsteen and Petty, and perhaps they will for Hoge. Brad Rice

For fans of: John Mellencamp, Hootie and the Blowfish, the Gin Blossoms

GREG PANFILE & TALK & ROLL
Inferno
(Greg Panfile)
A theatrical composer as well as a rock musician, Greg Panfile began Inferno in 1977 as a rock opera based on Dante's most famous work, but it took until now to reach fruition. Those expecting some sort of Andrew Lloyd Webber-style extravaganza/monstrosity (depending on point of view) will be disappointed/elated (depending on POV). Panfile is a smart and tasteful writer, using Dante's epic poem less as a source of narrative drive than as a thematic sketchbook. With a band of veteran sidepeople with names like Billy Joel, Al Kooper, Barrence Whitfield and Bonnie Raitt on their resumés, Panfile spins separate tales around different aspects of hell on earth and the folly of humanity. He applies wit, compassion and a solid (if staunchly traditional) sense of melody to songs about lust ("It's Just Lust," "I Can't Stand," "She Comes With Instructions"), rage ("Bloody Murder"), filthy lucre ("Silver Chains, Bars of Gold") and moral blindness ("Rational Eyes") without indulging in well-meaning but doomed storytelling. The results could still have been unbearably pompous, but Panfile avoids arrangements that lean towards bombast in favor of fairly lean rock/pop occasionally spiced with Latin elements. Besides, he keeps his sense of humor, as evidenced by the instrumental "Fires of Ishtar," a song based on sci-fi B film The Mole People—not the original, as the liner notes helpfully explain, but the version propagated by Mystery Science Theater 3000. With its canny use of style and substance, Inferno is a grand combination of ambition and taste. Michael Toland

For fans of: Terry Allen, Randy Newman's Faust, Paul K's A Wilderness of Mirrors

SON OF SAM
Songs From the Earth
(Nitro)
A New York creep-rock supergroup of sorts, Son of Sam is made up of punk, goth and metal veterans like Danzig's Todd Youth, Samhain's London May and Steve Zing and AFI frontman Davey Havok. They're basically a bunch of hip sidemen backing a journeyman punk singer and attempting to combine punk, pop, goth and hard rock into something new. The idea does indeed have enormous potential, but the result is less than impressive, as if the genres cancel out each other's attributes. The horror element of goth, the energy of punk, the hooks of pop and the power of metal all have their points dulled poking at the shield constructed by the band's enervated attack. The resulting record can't even muster up the energy to be cheesy—instead it's just bland. "The horror begins April 17th" intones the advance print. Frankly, on Songs From the Earth, the horror never starts. Michael Toland

For fans of: post-Glenn Danzig Misfits, Samhain', Bauhaus

ZERO HOUR
The Towers of Avarice
(Sensory)
In the world of progressive rock and metal, there aren't that many bands that are truly attempting to take the music the next step up the evolutionary ladder. That's not to say the genre isn't entertaining and/or rewarding, but it's always nice to come across a band like Zero Hour. They're obviously not satisfied with merely aping Dream Theater or Fates Warning, like so many other prog metal acts, and they step confidently into their own self-tailored coat on The Towers of Avarice. Guitarist Jasun Tipton and his bassist brother Troy twist standard metal and prog riffs into nearly unrecognizable shapes, creating songs that contain familiar elements but don't sound quite like anything that's comes before. Drummer Mike Guy seems to shift rhythms at random as he goes along, but the band never gets lost or falls away from him. Best of all is singer Erik Rosvold, whose powerful pipes avoid the usual prog metal clichés—he neither screeches nor growls, singing in an edgy, clear, melodic voice reminiscent of Chris Cornell. He's able to convey passion, menace or melancholy in equal measure, with the kind of control evident in all great singers. They're trying hard to create music that sounds like no one else—trying a little too hard, in fact, as much of the record is impressive more than it is enjoyable. That said, they're one of the few bands in prog metal actually the kicking the music into the next realm. Michael Toland

For fans of: Pain of Salvation, Cynic, Dali's Dilemma