When Toronto hard rock band Wildheart gave me their EP Gypsy
Soul for review, I’ll admit that the first thing I did was judge them on
appearance, before giving them one listen. I thought to myself they’re just
another band trying to look and play the part of an 80s band, whose real talent
in performing and writing are oblivious to their attempt revive a musical genre
by only its clichés. Luckily I was wrong.
It’s been a while since I’ve been given a good alternative
rock album. I almost forgot how much I enjoy the genre. Being one to indulge in
so many different kinds of rock, I usually have to find my way back to certain
genres every now and then, though I never stay away from any genre for too
long. Sometimes it takes a good song or album to do that. In this case it was
Florida alternative trio Anyone’s Guess
whose EP March In The Dark – Chapter 1
brought me back to my love of slightly damaged sounding well written music and
transgressive lyrics.
I feel as though I’ve started off so many articles saying
this but “screaming” in music is something I don’t enjoy. I mean, especially in
punk/pop-punk/anything remotely related to modern punk with screaming is just
so bland. There are exceptions when it comes to metal related screaming though,
but only some. I look at screaming in metal the same way people in the early 90’s
looked at the high-pitched voices of what 80’s “hair” metal became, it all
sounds the same, which is why I downright dislike bands whose sole vocal
performance on every to almost every song involves nothing but screaming. It’s
good to listen to when a little anger is needed to be offset, but that’s about
it. Bands like, off the top of my head, All
That Remains who, even in their heaviest days, combined screaming vocals
with clean vocals fairly evenly and feature no real punk elements, so they can
still retain my attention. Australia’s ABreach of Silence also fit under this category.
It took me a little longer than I’d like to admit to truly
appreciate Jake E. Lee. He is known
prominently as one of Ozzy Osbourne’s
most popular guitarists, having played on his immortal Bark At The Moon album, but it wasn’t until I first heard Shot In The Dark from his second album
with Ozzy, The Ultimate Sin, when I
first truly discovered who this man was. I was in my early years of high school
by this time. It was a little bit after then that I discovered Badlands; the other band Jake is well
known for. However, despite having found out of his existence, I still didn’t
truly have a grasp on how significant Jake E. Lee is as a guitar player. Just
before graduation, I got my hands on a copy of The Ultimate Sin and was blown away. To this day it remains my favourite
Ozzy album, completely because of Jake E. Lee’s ability to bring the best out
of Ozzy Osbourne as a singer.
