It's been a quarter century since vocalist Joey Belladonna, previously in Anthrax, released his debut solo album. He was acrimoniously dismissed from the ranks of that legendary thrash metal band in 1992 and this was his backlash.

Surprisingly, Belladonna didn't get some famous musicians to back him, but a bunch of guys that only played on this album in their musical "career". Well, the instrumental performances are basic, non-flashy, but adequate and.. Hmm, in tempo! This was Joye's show, I presume. Come on, Bruce Dickinson on his solos with Roy Z, for example! Now there's "a slight" difference to the quality of performances here... No amazing, unique playing like Charlie Benante's drums or Frank Bello's bass guitar, or tightness and speed of Scott Ian's riff-hand, then... Plus, while the sound is heavy and every instrument is well heard, they sound somewhat lifeless. Maybe guys here did their best, maybe the creation process was fast, hard to tell.

We got the worst out first. Well, not all, because here's next, and the final, deficiency: The lyrics. Mr. Belladonna was clearly exorcizing his demons, which were his old band mates and his firing from Anthrax, and getting back the strength to face all the crap the world throws at one. Joye sounds Joye; he does not sound like an angry gremlin, but those melody lines he sings are close to 'State of Euphoria' era (1988) Anthrax. Scott Ian wrote that he wasn't getting angry enough a voice out of Joey on 1990 album 'Persistence of Time', and now after hearing this, maybe Joey just couldn't sound more pissed off. I personally dig Joey's vocals. He doesn't remind me about anyone else, to tell the truth. He can hit notes, but his voice isn't robust, but high-pitched yet he was not a helium-breather. Generally, his work just isn't very polished.

The music is dumbed down US heavy metal with lots of groove, and of course coated with thrash metal. The music isn't very fast at its fastest, but mainly mid-paced. The rhythm guitar tone is meaty, and metallic bass guitar slapping reminds me of old thrash metal albums. The drums are snappy. It is rather easy to compare this to some simplified 1990s albums from Flotsam And Jetsam and Vicious Rumors, together with some Armored Saint stuff. And maybe Xentrix's miss titled 'Scourge' (1996). However, remember that the insrumentalists here were just workers, not in their own band. While Darin Scott, the guitarist here, wrote something with Mr. Belladonna, the majority was written together with Anthrax's ex-guitarist Dan Spitz's guitar technician Paul Crook! Okay, Joey didn't burn all the bridges behind him...

Some non-distorted guitar on 'Down & out' are at times eerie, and cozy. That song is the most twisting one together with 'Taken by Force', which features some real thrashing. And while that's not saying much, there's no progressive stuff, but straight, headbangable and pretty driving songs here. This sounds North American, not Accept or anything like that. There are moments of laid-back rocking every now and then. This contains many riffs ranging from okay to good, but I cannot go further and call anything here "classic". So, overall it is a good achievement and not a forced dud. With some serious cut and pasting in song-writing and fewer songs, this could have been so much more.

I wonder how this would sound like without Mr. Belladonna. Still, I really do not want to know. He's the thing here. These songs do not stick very well, but while listening to the album, it's all pretty much okay. Just do not expect any 'I Am the Law' or 'Madhouse' to be found here...

Rating: 6+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
10/25/2020 16:54