Some albums seem better suited for the modern era where people just download the songs they like than do others. It’s safe to say that the idea of producing an album that plays well from end to end seems to be getting lost by many artists these days. That’s an art form I hate to see vanishing. This new album from original Alice Cooper band member Neal Smith is certainly a disc that will do far better taken song by song. That’s because the chugging guitar driven sound that makes up the music here doesn’t vary much from track to track. Sitting down to listen to the whole thing in one shot it begins to feel pretty monolithic. Yet any one song pulled off and taken alone is cool. The music here sits somewhere between punk and metal and seems to have nods to groups like The Misfits and artists like Rob Zombie.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2012  Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.

The sounds of an ocean lead this off. Then we get some hard edged rock with a spoken vocal section. In some ways it reminds me of WASP. Then it powers out from there into the song proper. The vocals are more sung, but there’s still a bit of a spoken element to them. There’s a punk meets psychedelic edge to this cut.