CD Review: Dokken - Broken Bones

CD Review: Dokken - Broken Bones

Frontiers Records

All Access Review: A-

Dokken - Broken Bones 2012

Some Broken Bones never heal quite right, no matter how long they’re immobilized and allowed to set. Don Dokken is not a doctor, but perhaps he has finally concluded – after fairly recent attempts at reconciliation failed miserably – that he and guitarist George Lynch simply can never coexist together in Dokken, that their creative relationship is fractured beyond repair and that the book on the quarrelsome classic lineup that fought like hell and forged such ‘80s melodic hard-rock touchstones as the LPs Tooth and Nail and Under Lock and Key is permanently and forever closed.

As for the band that bears his name, the last chapter in the life of Dokken has yet to be written. In fact, if Broken Bones, out Tuesday on Frontiers Records, is any indication, Dokken, the sequel, could at least rival the original. With drummer Mick Brown the lone holdover from the glory days, and guitarist Jon Levin and bassist Sean McNabb filling the large shoes of Lynch and Jeff Pilson, respectively, Dokken hasn’t completely reinvented itself on Broken Bones, and yet, there’s something different about it that speaks to a subtle, yet perceptible, shift in philosophy.

Smoky and exotic, though fully engorged with the kind of hard-charging, testosterone-fueled guitar riffage and lightning-strike leads on “Best of Me” and the blazing lead single “Empire” that have always carried Dokken into battle, Broken Bones has more of a heavy blues feel than past efforts, with the weighty, groove-driven “Blind” and “Waterfall” owing a debt to late-‘60s/early-‘70s British rock royalty it cannot possibly repay. On the Middle Eastern-flavored snake charmer “Victim of the Crime,” Dokken manages to channel the spirits of both Led Zeppelin and The Beatles in a seductive, almost psychedelic attempt at reimagining “Kashmir” with kaleidoscopic vocal harmonies and slinky guitar. And they succeed.  

“Today” is even more of a departure, an enchanted, mysterious piece of boggy, candle-lit acoustic folk that could be a distant descendant of “Stairway to Heaven,” were it not for the gentle tape manipulation coloring the meditative mood in mind-altering, Hooka-sucking fashion. And just when it appears that Dokken is ready to slump down in its Lazy Boy and drift off in a sunny haze of golden guitar tendrils that curl around the intro to “For the Last Time,” Levin mounts a steed of stampeding power chords and spurs Dokken to ride deep into the night, where the decaying metallic beauty – interrupted by a searing Levin solo – of “Fade Away” awaits.

There’s a kind of heavy-metal yoga at work on Broken Bones, where limber melodies conform to pleasing, but unusual shapes – at least for Dokken they are. No longer able to soar to those high notes, after serious vocal surgery, Don Dokken drops to a lower register to add richness and body to these songs, soulfully delivering surprisingly affecting and powerful lyrics that express outrage over the stupidity of war and violence and heartfelt regret over lost love and bad choices. Too subdued in tone overall, Broken Bones would benefit from more attacking, vigorous rock workouts like “Empire.” But there’s more than enough of that on Broken Bones to please the old guard and new converts. No longer beholden to a commercially viable hit-making formula that major record labels would require them to reproduce on command, Dokken is branching out into new territory, while not entirely abandoning what made them famous in the first place. That’s a balance not everybody can maintain.

-            Peter Lindblad

Neal Schon finds his 'Calling'

The Journey guitarist recalls colorful times with Roy Thomas Baker, Geoff Workman

By Peter Lindblad

Neal Schon - The Calling 2012

Some are simply eccentric, a little strange but ultimately harmless. Others are complete loons, absolutely certifiable and more than a bit scary – Phil Spector comes to mind. Down through rock and roll history, some of the most interesting figures have been music producers. Journey’s Neal Schon has run across a few in his time.

Roy Thomas Baker, famed for his work with Queen and his innovative method of stacking harmonies, made sweet music with Journey on 1978’s Infinity and its follow-up, 1979’s Evolution. For 1980’s Departure, as Journey put its nose to the grindstone and put out three hit-laden records in three years, the band was put through its paces by Geoff Workman. Though different, both men were uniquely talented studio artists, capable of wringing the best performances possible out of their clients. And both were a little … different.

“I remember we did have a great time with Roy Thomas Baker and Geoff Workman; they were two characters – I mean really strong characters, both individuals,” said Schon, who will release a new solo instrumental album on October 23 on Frontiers Records titled The Calling. “You know, Roy was very flamboyant. He always had this king’s chair and he wore this king’s crown – you know, it was like Monty Python, for real. And Geoff Workman was like a pirate, and you know, he was always smoking a French cigarette and drinking a case of Elephant beer. It got very colorful in the studio.”

For Schon and the rest of Journey, whose direction had shifted somewhat with the addition of Steve Perry as vocalist on Infinity, as the band morphed from a collection of jam-band hippies from San Francisco to architects of a pop-infused hard rock Hoover Dam that generated hits instead of electricity, Evolution was made at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles at a time when they were feeling their oats.   

“We had some late nights, all-night benders (laughs), I remember that,” said Schon. “We were partying a lot as a band back then. I remember that the studio we were working in, we came in one morning, and I believe that Woodie – Ron Wood – and Keith Richards were in there the night before, and a couple of the guys were still sleeping on the floor. So, it was funny. I met them that way, and the studio was down there. We just waited for them to get up and got out, and we got our studio time started.”

Schon waits for no one anymore, as the rushed recording process of The Calling so aptly demonstrates. On a break from his duties with Journey, Schon made the most of his time, working quickly with former Journey mate, drummer Steve Smith, to create a surprisingly heavy and progressive set of tracks that travel through diverse musical terrain.

“I went in with a completely blank canvas, and a lot of colors, and the colors were all the guitars and amps I brought in, and obviously, the musicians that I played with,” said Schon. “And Steve Smith, it’s been a while since him and I got together and played, and the creative juices were just flowing. Really, I came in there unprepared. I hadn’t written any material. I had a few riffs here and there, and we sort of went at it day by day, and went about it in a similar way to when I’m working by myself at home, where I’m sort of playing up the instruments like on a demo, where I took a drum loop and instead of using a drum machine – which I would use at home – I had Steve Smith there, which was much better. I had him do a tempo for a certain riff that I would come up with, and I’d have him loop it for like eight bars, on the Pro Tools, and I’d say, ‘Give me a half an hour or 25 minutes to map this thing out.’”

Briefly repairing to another space, Schon continued to sketch out the mental musical blueprints he and Smith would follow.

“And so then I’d just take a rhythm guitar and have these definite drum loops going the whole time and I’d arrange what I’d need till the end of the song and all the different sections – the solo section, the intro, the heavy section … you know, all the sections and so forth, just like you’d arrange any song,” explains Schon. “And then, at that point, Steve Smith would come back in and would write down on paper musically what I played on guitar, the arrangement; then we’d talk about which was the heavier section, which was the solo section, and there’s the groove section, where the melody happens, you know, and then he’d play with different velocity. So he’s essentially a musician like that where he can see the landscape far in advance as well as I can.”

Working with Smith, who was trained in jazz at the revered Berklee College of Music prior to his joining Journey, was a revelation for Schon.

“It was a joy to work with him; he’s actually the perfect guy for me to work with on a project like this,” said Schon. “And so we would then go in, replay the drum loop, play the whole song together as if we were playing as a band, with all finished parts. And then I, immediately after that, before we went on to another song, would slam down the lead guitar, like we’d always do and do a couple of things, all the way through what was in my head. We didn’t have anything written. We just kind of winged it, you know. And it came out. It just came out. To me, that’s the beauty of this record – that it just kind of fell out of the sky, and you know, there wasn’t a lot of thought put into it. So whatever did come out, it was completely from the heart and soul. It was very organic, and I love the organic way of recording where it’s not so thought out – the old blues thinking, from all the old cats, like if you’re thinking, you’re beaten, you know (laughs).”

Schon had more to say about his days in Journey in our interview, and we’ll have more on that later. So, keep watching this space for more with the guitarist, a teen prodigy who played with Santana at Woodstock, and his incredible history.  

Book Review: KISS FAQ

Book Review: Dale Sherman – KISS FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the Hottest Band in the Land

Backbeat Books

All Access Review: B+

KISS - KISS FAQ 2012

Diving headlong into a seemingly bottomless pool of KISS-related minutia without any regard for how deep it really is, veteran writer Dale Sherman rarely comes up for air in this exhaustively researched tome. Densely packed with information, “KISS FAQ” explores – in painstaking fashion – everything imaginable under the KISS sun, from the trial-and-error evolution of their costumes and makeup to marketing and merchandising schemes that would put Madison Avenue to shame.

It’s a big, big job, and Sherman handles it admirably, organizing this mountain of material into fairly easily consumed chapters that seek to answer every controversy, every bone of contention that fans of KISS have fought over for decades. And while the writing is a bit perfunctory and dry, it’s not entirely humorless or bland, and Sherman certainly does not always treat KISS with kid gloves. Gene Simmons receives some lighthearted derision for the headband he once used to hold his wig in place for a KISS tour the band went on sans makeup, with Sherman comparing it to a “neon halo.” Furthermore, a chapter on drug references in KISS songs confronts head-on the somewhat confused stances Simmons and Paul Stanley – both famous for being rather straight-edge in their approach to such things – took regarding intoxicants, citing the classic “Cold Gin” as an example. Sherman notes that while the song, written by Ace Frehley about his battles with the bottle, certainly paints a cautionary tale about drinking to excess, “… it seems to also celebrate that level of despair.” And, in no uncertain terms, Stanley’s introductions to “Cold Gin” in concert often encouraged indulgence in mind-altering substances.

Ultimately, however, “KISS FAQ” – the 12^th in Backbeat Books’ FAQ series – revels in all the blood-spitting excess and crass exploitation of KISStory, exploring in great depth the link between KISS and the world of comics, key career-changing turning points, TV appearances (a whole chapter is devoted to “KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park”) and attempts to immortalize the band in celluloid. Context is provided for a list of those explosive, impactful live performances that not only put KISS on the map but made them rock gods, and Sherman, in heroic fashion, tries to figure out just what the hell “Duece” was all about – this after an insightful, revelatory talk with photographer Neil Zlozower about shooting the Creatures cover.

All manner of rumor and innuendo have contributed to the KISS mythology over the 40 years of their existence, and Sherman, who has written about KISS since 1980, addresses as much of it as possible in nearly 400 pages, sometimes falling short in his quest for truth simply because of conflicting testimony, lost evidence or failed memories. Though a somewhat arduous read, “KISS FAQ” - from Backbeat Books - makes good on its promise to provide a fair and balanced look into KISS’s somewhat checkered past, but more than that, there is a seriousness of intent to Sherman’s work that speaks to his obsession for covering all things KISS and getting the story right, even if that’s an impossible task – see his cataloging of all the changes, no matter how small, in KISS’s makeup for proof of his attention to detail. Consider most of your frequently asked questions about KISS answered.

-            Peter Lindblad

Why did the Dokken reunion fall apart?

Don Dokken explains what really happened, talks new album 'Broken Bones'

By Peter Lindblad

Dokken - Broken Bones 2012

It was time to let bygones be bygones, to beat swords into ploughshares, to put the past in the past and start anew. Those masters of melodic glam-metal, Dokken, were getting the band back together – that is to say, a reformation of the classic lineup of Don Dokken, George Lynch, Jeff Pilson, and Mick Brown was afoot.

The first sign of a thawing of tensions occurred in November, 2009, when Lynch and Pilson joined Brown and Dokken for two songs at Dokken’s House of Blues performance in Anaheim, Calif. Jumping the gun before all the “i’s” were dotted and all the “t’s” were crossed, Lynch and Dokken went on “That Metal Show”in May, 2010, to share the joyous news with the world.

Sheepishly, in December of that year, retractions would be issued, and Lynch, Pilson and Brown later appeared again on “That Metal Show” to explain how their best-laid plans had gone awry. Everybody seems to have their own version of what happened.

Don Dokken has his, and in a recent interview, he was asked what ultimately scuttled the Dokken reunion. He responded with, “Well, do you want the lie or do you want the truth?”

Of course, we wanted the truth, and so Don continued, “We’ll there’s about 20 versions from George – ‘I’m just an asshole, I want all the money and I’m hard to deal with.’ Well, that’s just about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. I mean, Mick will tell you that … and Jeff. We got together. We were going to do it last year, and we were excited to do it, and it was going to be great, and we thought it would put the exclamation point on our career. We had an offer to make an extreme amount of money to do it, so that was nice. And the truth is we got back together”

Everything was going swimmingly until, “Mick flew down, we all met, and Jeff said, ‘I want to do this, but I’m committed to Foreigner for two years.’ And I said, ‘Two years? That’s the last of that,’” said Don. “I couldn’t sit around waiting for two years, so that’s the truth.”

Not everyone seems to see it that way.

“I know George posted all this shit that I held it up and I wanted too much money, and he didn’t want to be a hired gun and all that,” said Dokken. “I don’t know why George does all that stuff. There’s something wrong with that guy between the ears. He’s always been a little weird. Someone asked me when we started not getting along, and I said, ‘It wasn’t toward the middle. We didn’t get along from the day he joined the band.’ He’s two different people, man. I mean, we played a couple of shows with him this summer, and he’s always nice to me, saying, ‘How are you doing, Don?’ I said, ‘You know what George? You’re always, “Hi, hi. How are you doing?” And then the very next day you talk shit about me on the Internet. What the fuck is that all about? Why do you keep this up?’ And if you say something, he’ll lie. Just tell the truth. Practice what you preach. The truth will set you free. He’s just a different personality. I don’t hate. I don’t worry about it. And I gave up trying to defend myself on the Internet a long time ago. You get a guy, he goes to the show and then he blogs, ‘I saw Dokken and they sucked.’ I just say to people like that, ‘Well, that’s your opinion, and don’t skimp on the avocado. If you think you can do better, here’s the microphone. Knock yourself out.’”

Whether Broken Bones, Dokken’s upcoming new record, due out Sept. 25 via Frontiers, will get such a frosty reception remains to be seen. Early on, however, it seems even factions of the metal community that haven’t always embraced Dokken’s brand of hook-friendly hard rock are ready to embrace Broken Bones, which features the band’s current lineup of Dokken, Brown, Jon Levin and Sean McNabb.

“Yeah, we’re getting even the diehard, hardcore metal [publications] … like Metal Hammer and all these people who don’t really like [bands], unless they’re thrash or something like that, gave us nine out of 10,” says Dokken. “We wrote 30 songs, but I just said, ‘Jon, I don’t know, but I’m going to take every fucking producing skill I have for this record and put it in there.’ I started hearing my peers – my peers – putting out these records – I’m not going to say who they are – and I just go, ‘Man, the shit’s boring.’ Same old shit, you know. People are like … I don’t know. They just get their advance and they just go and knock out a Pro Tools record, and it doesn’t have much production, it sounds kind of cheesy. I mean, I just heard that new TNN … that Pilson, Lynch, Mick did that TNN thing – oy, yoy, yoy. It’s been out three days and it’s getting crucified.”

As for Broken Bones, Dokken believes it shows a different side of the band, one that draws from a number of classic-rock sources while trying out a whole dazzling new range of tricks. 

“Look at ‘Waterfall,’ that weird drum beat … I’ve never done anything like that, or have a timing change in the middle of a solo – I’ve never done that in my career,” said Dokken, again playing guitar in the band with Levin, his longtime collaborator. “But yeah, Jon and I wrote the record, and I just finally said, ‘I know what everybody wants, and they want the same thing we did last year or a few years ago, which sounded very ‘80s like’ … and I just said, ‘Jon, I can’t paint the same picture.’ I mean, what’s the point? I hate it when people say, ‘I wish this record was like Tooth and Nail.’ Ok, then go buy Tooth and Nail.”

We’ll have more with Don Dokken in the coming weeks. In the meantime, visit Frontiers Records site to get the lowdown on Dokken’s latest record.

Check out Dokken videos:  Dokken's Official You Tube Channel

DVD Review: Queen - Greatest Video Hits

DVD Review: Queen - Greatest Video Hits

Eagle Vision

All Access Review: A-

Queen - Greatest Video Hits 2012

Donning a studded, black leather jacket in the video to Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” Freddie Mercury vamped around the air-brushed set like a cabaret version of Marlon Brando from “The Wild One,” strutting down a runway with a smoldering quartet of sexy male and female dancers in tow. In paying homage to rock ‘n’ roll’s envelope-pushing past, the always dramatic Mercury cut a very Elvis-like figure, coyly straddling that line between innocent, fun romanticism and explicit sexuality – much as Elvis did.

Where the King was only filmed from the waist up in certain TV performances, Mercury and his “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” playmates only hinted at the lascivious desires boiling up inside of them. Two years later, when Queen needed a visual accompaniment to “Body Language,” Mercury – largely responsible for the video’s steamy content – held nothing back, letting all of his deepest, darkest sexual impulses loose in a writhing orgy of sweaty skin and nubile bodies . As Roger Taylor and Brian May reveal in the surprisingly candid commentary included with “Greatest Video Hits,” the engrossing new compilation of Queen videos from Eagle Vision, the racy imagery was reflective of Mercury’s extreme nature and his increasingly reckless immersion in a homosexual subculture that laughed at prudish convention. And while that side of Mercury’s life may have provided titillating fodder for tabloid exploitation, there was more – much more, in fact – to Queen’s ever-evolving marriage of musical and visual artistry than stylized carnal fantasies, as “Greatest Video Hits” so magnificently illustrates.

Spread across two discs, this collection gathers 33 of Queen’s most inspired cinematic adventures – “Flash” and “A Kind of Magic,” influenced by the movie “Highlander,” being two of the most brilliant – vividly restored and fit into a widescreen format with remixed sound. There’s the lighthearted comedic romp “I Want To Break Free,” an infamous cross-dressing parody of the British soap opera “Coronation Street” directed by David Mallet that was banned by MTV, and the highly conceptual “Under Pressure” and “Radio Ga Ga,” which mixed vintage shots of Queen’s past and scenes from the visionary 1927 science-fiction film “Metropolis.” Evidence of Queen’s cheeky nature is found in “Bicycle Race,” featuring clips of comely naked lasses riding 10-speeds around a track without a care in the world, while the simple, straight-forward performance video of Queen playing “Hammer To Fall,” “Killer Queen,””Friends Will Be Friends” and “Another One Bites the Dust” – in all its grainy 16mm glory – remind one and all of the power and majesty of Queen’s prowess as a captivating, dynamic live band.

And we’re just scratching the surface here. Iconic videos of “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and, of course, the aforementioned “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” are included, as well as later works from when Queen tried to hold it together through May’s marital problems and Mercury’s disintegrating health, such “Breakthru,” which sees the foursome enduring a rather dangerous ride atop a train, and the joyously adorable “The Miracle,” with young children enthusiastically mimicking the roles of May, Mercury, Taylor and John Deacon.

These treasures alone would make “Greatest Video Hits” essential viewing, although what renders it priceless is that savagely honest and witty commentary track. So full of great anecdotes, unflinching opinions and rare insights, it goads May and Taylor into discussing the unvarnished truth behind every single video and song in the collection. Taking viewers behind the curtain, they are brutal when assessing “Scandal,” with Taylor admitting he was bored silly while making both the song and the video and May wishing it would have been more substantive considering how emotionally invested he was in the subject matter – namely, how gossip and rumor can damage not only reputations, but lives as well, as his was by the English press. Even more scathing when the subject turns to the staging of the ridiculously decadent “It’s a Hard Life,” May and Taylor can’t help chuckling at how “stupid” they look in ostentatious costuming that made a horse of Taylor and a colorful bird of paradise of Mercury. Even Queen, evidently, knew when things had gone too far.

Providing the perfect coda to “Greatest Video Hits” is the rousing anthem “One Vision.” Directed by Austrians Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher, the video is memorable for its innovative morphing of Queen’s famed 1975 pose from “Bohemian Rhapsody” into an updated portrait of the band in 1985, but, in “fly on the wall” fashion, it also peeks in on recording sessions for the track at Musicland Studios. While May remembers the sort of bunker atmosphere of the place being rather drab and depressing, the guitarist points out how galvanizing the song was for the band and what a unifying message it had for fans, as well. Even if it’s not entirely thorough – the videos for “Innuendo” and “The Show Must Go On” are missing – “Greatest Video Hits” is, in a sense, a similar vehicle for that communal vibe May found so appealing. Watch them all and bask in the warm Queen-related nostalgia that, chances are, someone else is also experiencing in a place that, suddenly, doesn’t feel so far, far away.

-            Peter Lindblad

CD Review: World Fire Brigade - Spreading My Wings

CD Review: World Fire Brigade - Spreading My Wings

Entertainment One

All Access Review: A-

World Fire Brigade - Spreading My Wings 2012

World Fire Brigade is certainly not low on Fuel. This trio of post-grunge renegades counts Fuel front man Brett Scallions, Smile Empty Soul lead singer/guitarist Sean Danielsen, and Eddie Wohl – best known as a producer/mixer for both bands, as well as Anthrax – among its members. And then, adding more Fuel to the fire, there’s Ken Schalk, Fuel’s current drummer, working in the trenches doing all the percussive dirty work for World Fire Brigade. On Spreading My Wings, their debut LP, these fire bugs have ignited a barely contained burn of riff-hungry, commercially accessible hard rock set ablaze with heated passion and intense emotions. They have no intention of putting out the blaze.

Decidedly heavier and more metallic than Fuel, World Fire Brigade was originally conceived as a sort of songwriting collective established to create material for other artists. In the end, they just couldn’t bring themselves to give away the product of their sweat and toil. No, this stuff, caught in the grip of hooks that simply don’t let go, was too good to pawn off on someone else.

Unexpectedly bracing, Spreading My Wings is a grinding, explosive work order that World Fire Brigade carries out with surprising vigor and guitars stuck in overdrive, especially on the gnarled, growling “Don’t Walk Away” and the slamming, groove-oriented serpents “All My Demands” and “Never Saw the Wall” – all of them red-hot furnaces of ferocious, prison-riot riffs and sizzling, screaming guitar leads, possibly inspired by the appearances of Anthrax’s Rob Caggiano and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready. More radio-friendly, “All You Know,” “Weight of the World,” and the title track all go through their periods of almost thrash-like intensity and rage, but when they dissipate and the vast, big-sky choruses that made Fuel famous come into view, plumes of melody fan out across the great expanse and take your breath away, as they do in “Shell of Me.”

Falling into predictable patterns, World Fire Brigade simply can’t help itself when it arrives at those choruses. They have to be vast and emit retina-scorching UV rays, the soaring vocals must be laid out on blankets of swaying, sustained guitar chords lightly fried with distortion, and they have to arrive right on time, as if they have to stick to a tight schedule. A welcome anomaly is “Fly,” a tender, delicately sketched acoustic ballad that goes by quickly, but is terribly affecting. So are the introspective lyrics of Spreading My Wings, which seek to leach the toxins of hurt, betrayal, anger and world-weary resignation from World Fire Brigade’s body and spirit. The cleansing starts now.

- Peter Lindblad

CD Review: In This Moment - Blood

CD Review: In This Moment - Blood

Century Media Records

All Access Review: C

In This Moment - Blood 2012

Maria Brink is not just another pretty face. For what it’s worth, the In This Moment singer was recently named as one of Revolver magazine’s “25 Hottest Chicks in Hard Rock.” Looks aside, Brink also possesses a powerful, commanding voice that can turn incandescently soft and alluring in the blink of an eye. Her mood can shift just as quickly when this beauty decides to turn into a beast.

Full of dark, carnal desire and tortured vivisections of stormy, confused gender relations, Blood, In This Moment’s potent but glossy and way over-produced fourth album of edgy, pop-infused heavy metal, is damaged goods. Tense, angry and desperate, the bombastic title track builds on a stiff, repeating riff, while an agitated Brink yells at a kind, respectful lover, “I hate you for always saving me from myself / I hate you for always choosing me and not someone else” and professes her adoration for a cad, setting feminism back thousands of years. It makes for riveting metal theater, as Brink rages on, and yet the tone, as warm as Formica composites, is so shrill and sharp – as it is throughout Blood – that it seems capable of slitting wrists wide open.

Though clearly a platform for promoting the burgeoning star power of Brink – only on the rarest of occasions does the instrumentation step out from behind the shadows – Blood sabotages her emotionally raw and unrepentantly lustful Oscar-worthy performance at almost every turn. Unremarkable riffs, a ridiculous piling on of arctic studio effects, unforgivable production butchery that mutilates the chorus of “Blood” – all of it robs the album of its soul.

As slinky and seductive as a pole dancer at first, the positively pornographic “Adrenalize” oozes sensuality – that is until a furious and punishing rhythmic humping of guitars, bass and drums mindlessly gang-bangs the whole thing into an unsatisfying oblivion. Too often, as with “Whore” and “Beast Within,” In This Moment simply recycles riffs into perpetuity and then slowly aggravates the tension until pulling the trigger on anticlimactic releases, and by the time “The Blood Legion” arrives, traversing all the glacial passages of icy electronica and frigid manipulations of Brink’s vocals – also encountered in the absolutely pointless interlude “Aries” – that populate the landscape of Blood becomes tiresome.

Not all of Blood needs a transfusion of originality and vitality. Even if the version of Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” seems slathered with pop lipstick, the cinematic flourish of “Burn” finds In This Moment breaking symphonic metal levees and letting a gorgeous flood of heavy guitars and strings wash over awestruck audiences, while the transcendent radiance of “From the Ashes” is beautifully blinding and the in-your-face aggression of “Comanche” wants to start a fight. A heavy metal priestess in every sense, Brink’s fashion sense is glitzy, stylish and anarchic, and she bears some cosmetic resemblance to Lady Gaga. Unfortunately, the music of Blood seems, at times, just as manufactured as Gaga’s.  

- Peter Lindblad