Sixx:A.M. - Vol. 2 Prayers For The Blessed album review; A Band In Reverse

Sixx:A.M. released Vol. 2 Prayers For The Blessed on 18 November as a companion to April's Vol. 1 Prayers For The Damned. Bassist Nikki Sixx, guitarist DJ Ashba and singer James Michael sat down with Shinedown's frontman, Brent Smith, in an exclusive radio special, to discuss the two albums and Sixx:A.M.'s transition as a side project with no rules to reluctantly becoming a full time band.

A Safe Haven

The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack - 2007

When Life Is Beautiful blew up on radio in 2007 and reached number two in the US mainstream chart, Sixx:A.M.'s promoters begged them to tour its parent album - The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack. There was an overriding issue though - neither Sixx, DJ nor Michael had ever played in the same room together. They were three artists who had come together as friends for a side project but never had any intentions to tour the material. They didn't want to be contained by the rules that came with labelling themselves a band - and were proud to do so.

"Sixx:A.M. was formed as a haven for the three of us who all had a lot of stuff going on in the music business already", says Michael, "a place for three guys who like each other as people but also have spent their entire adult lives and careers navigating the parameters of the music business. This began as a safe haven for us to basically break any rule we wanted, do whatever the heck we wanted to do musically, lyrically, production-wise. It was this gift of freedom that the three of us gave each other. We weren't trying to do the things we do in our main careers and we've carried that with us through all of the records and all the years."

Any touring would also come as quite an inconvenience. Sixx was still full- time with Motley Crue, DJ was five years into his solo career and various other projects and Michael was writing and producing for The Exies, Marion Raven,  Motley Crue and Scorpions. However, as demand for a tour increased, Sixx:A.M. reluctantly embarked on a 40 date run with Crue Fest in the Summer of 2008 - a full year after The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack had been released.

"We kicked and screamed about that a lot", begins Sixx, "we didn't even know how to be a band".

"We were reluctant every step of the way", continues Michael, "not in a negative way, but we were so proud of the fact that we weren't a band. We had no rules that normally dictate what a band does. No obligation to tour. Just do what we wanted. We were always saying: 'Ah that's cool we can do that because we're not a band'; 'We can do a seven minute song, because we're not a band'. The transition from that has been very, very gradual. It's literally been ten years of writing and recording songs and not doing much touring. Nikki's said this a few times, "We're kind of a band in reverse."

A New Phase

At the tail end of 2015 however - after nine and a half years and three albums, which had all broken into the Top 30 of the US charts, with very minimal accompanied touring - Sixx:A.M. were in a position which would enable them to become a full time band. Motley Crue were finally retiring with a show on New Year's Eve following a tediously long farewell tour and DJ was leaving Guns 'n' Roses (whom he'd been with since 2009), with the impending return of Slash for the highly anticipated Not In This Lifetime world tour. Sixx explains how the tide had been turning for quite some time before then though: "Modern Vintage [2014] was the turning point. DJ was still in GNR, I was still wrapping up the final tour with Motley Crue and James was between producing. We said let's go out and do some shows and for a band that prided itself on being a project, I feel like we found ourselves a little bit."

"We figured the best way to kick-start that next phase of our career was to give the fans a lot of new music", reveals Michael, "so we went into the studio a little over a year ago with every intention to write two full records. What happened was at the half way point, we went out on tour for a little bit and that led to Vol. 1 having its own stand alone feel and Vol. 2 was elevated because it was influenced by this new touring experience, and I feel reflects a whole new Sixx:A.M. It's interesting to see the evolution from one to the other."

Vol. 2 Prayers For The Blessed

Vol. 2 Prayers For The Blessed - November 2016

Vol. 2 Prayers For The Blessed flaunts a marked improvement from previous works, with its vast variety of song content and production style. That said, Barbarians, We Will Not Go Quietly, The Devil's Coming and Wolf At Your Door from the A side are essentially a copy and paste job of the singles from Vol. 1; histrionic, radio-friendly alternative metal that is designed to be performed in arenas. Closing the A side is Catacombs, a 1:20 instrumental that only consists of DJ Ashba performing with his adept dexterity with some added whammy and distortion thrown in for good measure. While this tangent in content is cool to listen to, it offers nothing to the album and feels like a throw away track to fill the record - a prime example of the band's attitude to doing what they want with their creativity.

Now the B side is where Vol. 2 surpasses Vol. 1. The veracious quality of the song writing and song construction is clear here with the tracks That's Gonna Leave A Scar and Riot In My Head - which has a whiff of Queen going on in the latter part of the song.

The B side is also where we find an excellent cover of Badfinger's Without You, made famous by Harry Nilsson in 1971. Sixx:A.M. could have played it safe and simply done a standard cover, but instead set out to challenge themselves and thereby wrote an additional section and solo to beef up the middle of the song. It's difficult to make a song that's been covered 182 times sound unique, so Sixx explains the process behind their version of the song: "There's a middle eight that we wrote into it as a way to break up the song a little bit. We looked at the Wings concept of Live And Let Die: it's a little orchestrated. It's dramatic. We wanted to give it a little bit of meat." 

The combined imagery of Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 make for compelling imagery

Taken as a whole, the combined quality of Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 is far higher than The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack, This Is Gonna Hurt and Modern Vintage. Sixx accredits this to the new experience of simultaneously touring and writing: "Once we made that commitment to touring we started writing more songs that could be portrayed in a live environment as well as not losing our original roots. We wrote Helicopters (Vol. 2) and Rise Of The Melancholy Empire (Vol. 1) without knowing if they would be played live, whereas Barbarians, We Will Not Go Quietly (both Vol. 2) and Rise (Vol. 1) were written with every intention of being played in a live environment."

Rating - 4/5

You can listen to the full interview with Brent Smith here - http://sixxammusic.com/news/2016/12/5/new-sixxam-radio-special-hosted-by-shinedowns-brent-smith-available-now

You can also find my review of Vol. 1 Prayers For The Damned here -http://ramblingsofanessexlad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/sixxam-prayers-for-damned-album-review.html

Airbourne - Breakin' Outta Hell album review

Airbourne are back with album number four - three years after Black Dog Barking - and there's absolutely no change in the formula; raw, in your face rock 'n' roll - the only way they know how and just how we like it.

In these days of digital amplifiers, dozens upon dozens upon dozens of every effect pedal imaginable and distortion laden pick-ups, it's refreshing to listen to a band who use only what's needed - drums, bass, stock Gibson guitars and 12 (yes 12!!!) Marshall stacks - to make rock 'n' roll sound the way it was meant to.

There are a few standout tracks; title track Breakin' Outta Hell, Thin The Blood - which sounds like a combination of Little Richard and Motorhead, and It's All For Rock 'N' Roll - a nod to AC/DC's For Those About To Rock.

As ever, Airbourne aren't afraid to write dirty lyrics that parents wouldn't want their little angel listening to - Down On You, Do Me Like You Do Yourself and When I Drink I Go Crazy need no explaining.

It's a very fun listen and will have anyone headbanging, even the parents.

Rating - 4/5

Philip Sayce - Influence album review

It would be bold of me to say, but I truly believe that in Philip Sayce we have a guitar God among us. His debut, 2009's Peace Machine, was, if anything, an attempt to replicate Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn for 15 tracks - rather than an original effort. It demonstrated his ferocious, fuzzy, wah infested, screaming, raw blues tone, and immediately catapulted him onto a pedestal with the best players ever. That said, it wasn't a particularly diverse piece of work. Five years on we have 2014's Influence - the Electric Ladyland of Sayce's discography if you will - a masterful performance of stratospheric proportions.

As the title alludes, Influence has a few covers; Ed Lewis and Prisoners' Tom Devil, Graham Nash's Better Days and Green Power by Little Richard. These tracks add the diversity that was arguably missing from Peace Machine, but there's still plenty of what Sayce's fans love him for; heavy riffs, screaming distortion and fluttering vibrato. Miles Miller and Chris Powell, on drums and bass respectively, compliment Sayce to such an extent, it isn't too far off feeling like you're listening to The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Out Of My Mind, I'm Going Home and Light Em Up, in particular, are majestic exhibitions of perfect chaos and intense rackets - vigorous riffs finished off with implausibly exceptional solos.

Sayce - like Hendrix with Little Wing - also shows that he has a softer side. The guitar on Fade Into You flanges beautifully with a tonne of reverb, almost dreamily, building and building, before Sayce launches into the best solo I've ever heard on a Sayce album. Triumph is similar although in instrumental form.

It will be very difficult for Sayce to out do this album - it represents his blossoming maturity as both a musician and guitarist - but whatever he comes up with, no doubt it'll be out of this world.

Rating - 9/10

Sixx:A.M. - Vol. 1 Prayers For The Damned album review

Sixx:A.M. was established nearly ten years ago as a side project for Motley Crue bassist, Nikki Sixx. Accompanied by Guns 'N' Roses guitarist, DJ Ashba and producer come singer, James Michael, the trio put together an audio documentation of Nikki's heroin addiction from his book; The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star. Brutal honesty, unsettling imagery and complex track mixing would define it and the three albums that followed.

Prayers For The Damned features many familiar themes; drug abuse, rehab and anarchy to name three. Rousing anthems When We Were Gods, Better Man and You Have Come To The Right Place are bookmarks on the album, exhibiting the extraordinary combination of Sixx's songwriting, Ashba's flamboyant fret-work and Michael's emotion ridden vocals.

There's lots of variety here too, though. Rise and Rise Of The Melancholy Empire are poles apart but both are executed with the same oomph and gusto. The former is clearly designed for non-stop commercial radio plays with it's rousing call to arms, whereas the latter is a slow burner that takes a minute to evolve from a melancholy piano verse into a thumping drum and rhythm guitar driven chorus, and finally Ashba's best solo on the disc to cap off a polished six minutes of dexterous musicianship. Safe to say it's going to be a song that's rarely played live, which says how far Sixx has come having been in a band that primarily specialized in crowd pleasing three minute tracks without much texture or substance.

PFTD is a grand departure from what Sixx was doing for 34 years previously and compellingly so - although it's difficult to compare the two bands in terms of musical style - but the step up in musical quality may be down to his band mates. Either that or he was being massively held back in Crue, which wouldn't be surprising when Vince Neil is your lead singer.

Rating - 7.5/10

Grand Magus - Sword Songs album review

If you know of Grand Magus already then they'll need no introduction, but I got into Grand Magus completely by accident. Before getting into the review, let me quickly tell you how I came across this distinctive band.

Stumbling Across Grand Magus

I was waiting for my friends to meet me at midday on the Sunday at Download Festival 2016, when one texted me saying they were running very late due to thronging traffic and that I should head off and see a band instead of waiting for them at the entrance. I headed over to the stage nearest me - the Zippo stage - and waited for the scheduled band to appear, whilst also trying not to slip over in the multiple inches of traditional Download mud. 

 

 

Janne 'JB' Christofferson

I didn't even know the name of the band yet. I didn't have a program and couldn't even decipher the text sprawled in ancient font on a banner at the rear of the stage. Lead singer and sole electric guitarist, Janne 'JB' Christofferson, emerged with his Flying-V Gibson, introduced himself and his two comrades as Swedish band, Grand Magus, and started playing. The only way I could describe what resonated from the stack of Marshall amplifiers was a mash-up of Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Dio and Judas Priest; fantastically dense, riff driven Heavy Metal, but well constructed and not overbearingly fast or even thrash - the latter of which I cannot stand by the way. Much like the first time someone elucidated the genre of Nightwish to me - symphonic Metal - the light bulb when off when 'JB' announced Grand Magus as 'Viking Rock' midway through their set - an apt description and a genre I'd certainly never heard of before.

After doing some research on the band and listening to their whole back catalogue in the six weeks since, I felt confident enough to review their latest album, Sword Songs, released a month before Download, that they performed a few tracks from when I was there.

Sword Songs

Stories of Norse Gods and mythology, battles and the forging of swords - what's not to like?! Grand Magus have made a 15 year career of narrating the prodigious tales of their homeland through the medium of Heavy Metal. You may have thought that after eight albums this gimmick would have become a little laborious, perhaps even repetitive, but - much like Iron Maiden and Motorhead - why change a winning formula?

Although never changing their core style, Grand Magus have altered the delivery by a few degrees on each album. Iron Will from 2008 arguably displayed the grandest of Grand Magus; a supreme demonstration of power Metal, while Hammer Of The North, 2010, exhibited Grand Magus piling on the doom; akin to Black Sabbath in many aspects. Sword Songs takes yet another tangent - offering a more measured approach and diverse structure to the point of considering it a concept album - but without losing sight of what they've made before.

As far as the concept goes, there's the battle cry - Varangian - the preparation for war - Forged in Iron, Crowned in Steel - the declaration of war - Master of the Land - and the Norse honour of dying on the battle field - Last One to Fall. That said, not all nine tracks (11 on the deluxe edition) follow the same trend; Everyday There's a Battle to Fight is quite simply an empowering song about overcoming everyday struggles.

It's exciting storytelling combined with well composed Heavy Metal; it's well worth checking out!

Rating - 8.5/10

Rival Sons - Hollow Bones album review

Rival Sons have been channelling legend ever since their first label release, Pressure and Time, in 2011. The comparisons came thick and fast, but you could never deny their own incredible craftsmanship. Whilst drawing on the influence of luminaries among the likes of Led Zeppelin, Rival Sons have fanned the ashes, reignited the spirit of the Mothership and branded their evolution of Zeppelin onto modern consciousness.

Rival Sons have accelerated their astonishing ascent with their latest album; Hollow Bones. Much like their own echoes to Zeppelin, Rival Sons have echoed their own work on this release - the most obvious being the split title track which wafts recollections of Manifest Destiny from Head Down.

There are many themes to be dissected during the 37 minutes of run time - death, sex, religion - and Rival Sons don't just flirt with them, they dance, casting fuzzy, gruff magic with every step. Never have I ever encountered such a rough sound portrayed quite so smoothly. Dave Cobb is the producer on this record; no wonder it's nigh on faultless.

With musical maturity must also come boundless confidence in the sound you are producing. Fade Out is a perfect example of this. Quiet and soulful, this wonder soon transforms into the most bombastic of classic rock - a solid marker of Rival Sons musical journey.

I would be amiss doing this review and not mentioning Black Coffee, a cover of Humble Pie from 1973. Like the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton etc from the early 60s, Rival Sons are besotted with black music and it's influence on their own style. Black Coffee is bold and in your face, yet controlled in its attack. A mid track shift leaves behind lyrics and leaves the floor to the rhythm section and Scott Holiday to blow the studio doors of its hinges, before Jay Buchanan comes back in with a primal wail. Rival Sons have never been a band to include covers on their records - maybe it's intentional - but on this evidence they certainly would stain themselves doing so.

Once again echoing Zeppelin, Hollow Bones pt.2 evokes In My Time Of Dying with massive riffs and a deluge of slide guitar. I said earlier there are themes including religion and no more is that apparent than here, with Buchanan hollering such proclamations as, "Hallelujah", "Hare Krishna", and "In my Creators name"; a full frontal embrace of all aspects of theology.

The album cover itself is as much a wonder to behold as the music itself. A wolf seemingly trudging around an apocalyptic wasteland of psychedelic coral, perhaps conjuring the theme of death, and whether it is or not, it's a welcome throw back to a time when deciphering album covers was as much of the record buying experience as the listening.

Rating - 9/10

Volbeat - Seal The Deal & Let's Boogie album review

Let's start this review on a positive footing shall we? There are some awesome tracks on Seal The Deal & Let's Boogie, some properly infectious, groovy Metal. Unfortunately, for as many fist pumping songs as there are on this disc there are the same amount of wilted, below par offerings.

The problem is clear with Volbeat's sixth studio album; it suffers from a soggy middle. The top is adorned with lusciously sweet, creamy icing, the bottom is moist, but the middle is gooey and inedible.

Buying a new release off what you hear from radio plays of a band's singles is risky, but that's the joy of listening to an entire album; the not-knowing what you're going to set your ears on next. This does, however, leave the listener open to be desperately unsatisfied when what they're listening to doesn't live up to the expectations the singles offered.

This is exactly how I felt listening to STD&LB. Track one, The Devil's Bleeding Crown (one of said singles) opens the album with a bang - a fast, heavy bang - and really whets the appetite for what's to come. Through tracks two to four I have no complains; solid Hard Rock with the beautifully written - and performed partly in Volbeat's native Danish - For Evigt the standout of the first half.

Now, rather depressingly, the quality takes a bit of a nose dive. It's not even particularly clear to me what goes so wrong, but somehow Volbeat end up sounding something akin to Nickelback and it's not pleasant. For my own sanity - and also because I have no desire to describe the flaccidity of the middle four tracks - I'm going to move onto the last, and in my humble opinion, best third of the album.

Goodbye Forever, despite sounding rather apocalyptic, is up tempo and has a little power ballad flavour to it. Volbeat employ a backing choir for the last third of the track and it really adds weight to the deep meaning of the song - a very pleasant, divergent track to anything else on here.

The title track is up next. It's punchy, bolshie, fast and add to that any other synonym you can think of to describe Heavy Metal. It's got a feel similar to that of Metallica and even the guitar sound is "Wah-ed" to rival Kirk Hammett's majestic axe work. It's just a beast, pure and simple.

In Volbeat's Wiki entry, it describes their repertoire as: "Heavy Metal, Hard Rock and Psychobilly", the third of which I was highly confused by. My confusion was thusly ended however when I heard Battleship Chains, a cover of Terry Anderson's song made famous by The Georgia Satellites in 1986. It's got almost every sub-genre of rock infused into it; rhythm and blues, country and punk to name just three! It may not be a diamond on STD&LB, but it's shiny nonetheless.

Overall, STD&LB delivers fun Hard Rock. It's a huge shame the middle of the album doesn't deliver the same intensity, but in no way does it detract from the iconic Volbeat sound.

Rating - 7/10