Last updated on May 19, 2013
So I’ve been listening to some music lately.
Adrenaline Mob: Omerta – Pretty standard hard rock cover, don’t you think?
Adrenaline Mob is one of those dreaded rock and roll “supergroups” that everyone seems to hate. From Velvet Revolver to Chickenfoot to Audioslave, they’ve not gotten a good reputation over the years. Putting successful musicians from other bands into a different band doesn’t necessarily translate to instant classic status. There’s a reason why certain people get together to make music, rather than others. They’ll probably enjoy playing with some people rather than others, and it does show in the music (even if not in words and text). That’s just the way of things. As a marketing tool, it’s incredibly effective, but usually the music disappoints Or that’s what most people say because they raise their expectations far too high for a random collection of rock musicians.
Well, excepting Them Crooked Vultures, which just sounds like a Queens of the Stone Age record, but that’s a different story.
Anyway, Adrenaline Mob’s a combination of various people from a bunch of hard rock/progressive rock bands. We get Symphony X’s Russell Allen, whose vocals hit that perfect Ronny James Dio tone. We also obtain ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy who, all said, wastes his immense talents on this particular venture. We also have Mike Orlando, who worked on…something, I’m sure (I’m kidding!), and John Moyer, the bassist for Disturbed. In effect, we hear a little of each person in the overall impression from Omerta: Allen tries to sound like Disturbed’s distinctive lead singer, as opposed to his work in Symphony X. Portnoy turns himself into a standard rock drummer who’s not going to pound double kick-pedals down your throat in odd time signature changes. As far as the guitar work, you wouldn’t be wrong in identifying every single traditional nu-metal riff you’ve ever heard. In other words, a whole lot like Disturbed except for some completely maniacal guitar solos and displays of musicianship that fit into every song.
If I sound down on the whole album, I’m not. It’s extremely competent, sounds great, and most of the songs remain quite catchy. However, they all sound like the same song to a degree, and that’s perhaps the biggest fault I can level against this. There’s nothing as innovative and interesting as the main bands where these band members play. However, it’s a rollicking good time without the pretense of BEST ROCK RECORD EVER as most supergroups tend to fall. I think most criticism tends to get leveled against the individual band members as if they had to make something equal or better than their main projects, and that’s why people don’t enjoy these CDs.
Me? I like it. And you might like it too, if your interests in rock music skew towards the big, dumb, and completely unwieldly rock music. All sorts of hilarious self-aware one-upsmanship and “I yell curse words because I’m hard” pseudo-posturing you’d expect from supergroups. They’re just jamming, and you’re invited.
Clutch: Earth Rocker – Honestly, I don’t know much about Clutch. Apparently their blend of bluesy, groovy, and altogether heavy hard rock existed for two decades before coming into my lap in utterly condensed form. The first word that comes to anyone’s mind when thinking of Clutch is “weird”. Certainly, that was my impression; the lyrics come from either a drug trip or a mind addled with bizarro poetry (“One thousand Les Pauls burning in a field/What rabid religion poisons their minds?/One thousand Jazzmasters thrown into the sea/What measure of madness governs their time?”). Either way, Neil Fallon sings them with such conviction that you might incline yourself to believe him.
Much like Queens of the Stone Age, though, you’re not listening to Clutch for some wonderful low-key, lyrically inventive indie rock; you want some feel-good, fist-pumping, floor- rumbling rock and roll. That’s what Earth Rocker does in a nutshell – nothing more and nothing less. The opening track tells you all you need to know about this record from the moment you start up: they’ve come to rock your face off, and you’ll like it. The hilarious babbling laughter in the chorus, additionally, should tell you that everyone in Clutch is out of their minds:
Personal favorites include Crucial Velocity, where a man regales us with the tale of his beloved 88 (a kind of car, I imagine) while rocking straight ahead to many futures, and Oh Isabella, which must have the catchiest chorus riff that I’ve heard in a long time. Not that the rest of the album’s any slouch either; it’s definitely one to be played straight through, and then many time after that. Part of the appeal comes from the straightforward, honest, and fun approach. Unlike Adrenaline Mob, there’s no preconceived notions to be brought to bear based on previous career choices or previous projects; Clutch’s tenth albums sounds a lot like their other nine (far as I can tell from previews and such), and that’s a good thing.
I’m not sure why there’s such an intangible effect that this whole album produces in me. I’d call it “feel good”, but you could seriously put this in the background of any daily activity and instantly make it epic. I’m not kidding; I’ve been tanking in World of WarCraft with Earth Rocker in my head, and it makes it quite exciting. Considering parts of WoW become pretty darn monotonous and/or relaxing, that’s a feat in itself.
I imagine someone out there complains about the “amped up” sound mixing (similar to what happened with Metallica’s Death Magnetic, it’s obvious that loudness takes precedence on this particular record), but the sound mixing appears totally fine on the actual record. The Youtube one seems a little off, so forgive the lower sound quality.
All I can say is: both album feel like a lot of fun, and that’s the kind of music I wanted to hear this weekend. They didn’t disappoint at all, suffice to say, and they shouldn’t for anyone into these particular genres of music: no exorcism of personal demons and/or feelings, just plain fun music.
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Like last week, I have no idea what I’m going to write about this week, but we’ll see!
