What a varied bunch of music is on offer this week for your pleasure. Everything from 80s pomp to death rock and even touch of jazz-fusion or is that fusion-jazz…
CD Reviews
Evanscapps: Last Time
Ean Evans of Lynrd Skynrd and Bobby Capps of .38 Special have teamed up for a side-project that is a little different from their normal gig. For one thing no one named Van Zant is involved in this endeavor. What we have here is a couple guys having some fun releasing an album that sounds a bit like Black Label Society, if they occasionally went in for a bit of Kid Rockisms.
Most of the time they are firmly in the BLS territory, with the Southern rock-metal vibe seething through all the tracks. They call it “Southern Alternative Metal,” but a slight touch of Alice in Chains at times does not make this alternative to me. It's just good Southern metal that has been influenced by all that came before it, including giants like Clutch. Whatever you call it, it's damn good music.
What makes it even more impressive is that Evans is battling cancer, having been diagnosed in late '08. I wonder if his cancer (undiagnosed at the time of recording) influenced the dark tinge that can be felt on this record. As a cancer survivor myself, it's amazing how you finds it taints what you have done before it's discovered. In late April Southern Rock came out for a benefit show in Columbus, Mississippi. We wish him a speedy recovery.
This a great rock/metal release that is well worth seeking out. You are not only buying a damn good album, but helping a talented man battle a horrible disease.
Slough Feg: Ape Uprising!
Properly entitled Lord Weird Slough Feg, this lot are rather odd in an incredibly endearing way. The name is taken from the main villain in a British comic book series entitled Slaine, which deals with Celtic myth. So you would expect them to come from the U.K. or Ireland right? Nope they hail from Pennsylvania, that hub of Celtic myth, via San Franscisco. If you can imagine Twisted Sister, with a touch of Dio, doing Celtic myth instead of angst rock then you might be somewhere close to this sound.
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