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Artist: Mass |
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I don’t know whether it’s the lack of new talent or the fact that bands are sick of the X Factor, American Idol and all the other TV shows of similar vein that offer that Andy Warhol fifteen minutes of fame, or whether the new bands around want instant fame and aren’t prepared to work for it, or perhaps it’s just laziness on their part? However, there seems to be an awful lot of the older bands fanning the ashes of fires of the past and reforming to show the young uns how good rock never dies, it just lies in wait for the right moment to make a comeback. Another band to rekindle the flame are Boston hard rockers Mass, not to be confused with the German metal band of the same name, in 2007 the band signed to Escape Music for the release of their new album 'Crack Of Dawn', an album that not only rekindled the flames within the band but also within their fans and also grabbed a few new ones along the way. Now in 2010 Mass return again to show that you can't keep an old dog down, with their latest opus ‘Sea Of Black’, and once again the album sees Martin Kronlund produce the album, as he did with 'Crack Of Dawn', and just like on 'Crack of Dawn', Kronlund has delivered the goods once more. The album is a great Hard Rock album from beginning to end and like 'Crack Of Dawn' it not only captures the bands 80’s hard rock vibe, but punches it right into the now. From the opener ‘Falling From Grace’ it's rock all the way, with a thunderous start provided by the solid foundation rhythm section of Joey Vadala and Michael Palumbo, which are overtaken by the hard edge guitar licks of Gene D’Itria, before Louis St August unleashes those mighty pipes and the track really starts to take shape. It simply explodes into a flurry of tub thumping, bass grinding backbeats and fiery licks all wrapped in a warm blanket of towering vocals, a great opener for sure. The tempo is kept going into track two as St August gives a Halford style scream to help get ‘The Right Side’ underway. This track has enough of the old school vibe to keep all those diehard fans happy, but also has equal measures of new school edged rock to attract some new fans. After the first two full on tracks it’s time to bring it down a touch with the excellent ‘All The Years Gone’. This is one of the tracks of the album for me, the multi faceted tempos on this one are just excellent. They build up the chorus is just first-class. The album continues to impress me greatly as it brings the big guns to the table with ‘Thru The Rain’ and ‘All That I Needed’, squeezing the ballad ‘Coming Home in between these two. Speaking of ballads one of the best tracks on the album is a ballad ‘More Than Just A Friend’. This is song is just brilliant and breaks up the album really well and buffers the hard rock really perfectly. It's all guns blazing once again after the rest bite of the last track, with D’Itria laying down the licks for ‘Justify’, a real meaty slice of Hard Rock that is pure Mass. Things get a little funky with another of my favourites off the album ‘Ashes to Ashes’, the big bass lines on this one will get your mojo going for sure. The
multi dimensional nature of this album is shown once again as things get a
little more melodic rock with ‘Till We Meet Again’ before the instrumental ‘Captain Jack’, which leads
us nicely into the final
and title track ‘Sea Of Black’. A track that brings the rock to close
on what
is another great album from Mass and like 'Crack Of Dawn' showed before,
if
you’ve got the talent and the commitment in your music, you don’t
have to be put out to pasture, there is still life in these old dogs yet! |
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| Tracklisting:
1.
Falling From Grace |
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