I didn’t know these guys were still around, but ‘Born
Again’ is evidence that eighties metal is still alive and doing fairly well.
All the members of the classic Warrant line-up are here except for vocalist Jani
Lane. I guess he was too busy with ‘Celebrity Fit Club’, so singer Jaime St.
James has taken his place. While this is a heavier sounding album than the ones
that made Warrant an MTV staple (‘Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich’ and ‘Cherry
Pie’), thankfully the band isn’t trying to hop on current trends and be
something they’re not. This is just a solid hard rock album with good hooks.
The blues influence that surfaced on past songs like “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is
evident here on tracks like “Dirty Jack”, but for the most part this is straight
up melodic metal. There’s no obvious classic to stand alongside songs like
“Down Boys” or “Cherry Pie”, but there’s nothing to be embarrassed about,
either. Only one power ballad (“Glimmer”), and even that is more power than
ballad. Seeing as Motely Crue and Poison are just riding on their past glories
these days, fans looking for something new from one of the top bands of the
eighties metal scene should eat this up. I was fully prepared to lay into this
CD, but I have to admit it won me over. (Bob Ignizio)
I absolutely loved Zombi’s debut album ‘Cosmos’, and I
still pull that disc out for a listen fairly often. So as you can imagine, I
was really looking forward to this follow up album, while at the same time
dreading that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations. Thankfully, any fears I
might have had are quickly proven to be unfounded by ‘Surface to Air’. For
those of you still unfamiliar with this instrumental duo, they play synth and
bass driven music reminiscent of seventies prog rockers like Goblin and
Tangerine Dream. There’s even a hint of Georgio Moroder on “Digitalis”, which
kind of reminds me of Moroder’s “Theme From Midnight Express”. My favorite
tracks are probably the two most driving numbers, “Legacy” and “Surface to Air”,
both of which would sound right at home in a seventies Italian horror film. But
the most ambitious composition here is “Night Rhythms”, which clocks in at
almost twenty minutes and pulls off the difficult feat of remaining interesting
for the entire running time. Definitely not for everyone, but if you like this
style of music pick this up immediately. (Bob Ignizio)
I didn’t know these guys were still around, but ‘Born
Again’ is evidence that eighties metal is still alive and doing fairly well.
All the members of the classic Warrant line-up are here except for vocalist Jani
Lane. I guess he was too busy with ‘Celebrity Fit Club’, so singer Jaime St.
James has taken his place. While this is a heavier sounding album than the ones
that made Warrant an MTV staple (‘Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich’ and ‘Cherry
Pie’), thankfully the band isn’t trying to hop on current trends and be
something they’re not. This is just a solid hard rock album with good hooks.
The blues influence that surfaced on past songs like “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is
evident here on tracks like “Dirty Jack”, but for the most part this is straight
up melodic metal. There’s no obvious classic to stand alongside songs like
“Down Boys” or “Cherry Pie”, but there’s nothing to be embarrassed about,
either. Only one power ballad (“Glimmer”), and even that is more power than
ballad. Seeing as Motely Crue and Poison are just riding on their past glories
these days, fans looking for something new from one of the top bands of the
eighties metal scene should eat this up. I was fully prepared to lay into this
CD, but I have to admit it won me over. (Bob Ignizio)
I absolutely loved Zombi’s debut album ‘Cosmos’, and I
still pull that disc out for a listen fairly often. So as you can imagine, I
was really looking forward to this follow up album, while at the same time
dreading that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations. Thankfully, any fears I
might have had are quickly proven to be unfounded by ‘Surface to Air’. For
those of you still unfamiliar with this instrumental duo, they play synth and
bass driven music reminiscent of seventies prog rockers like Goblin and
Tangerine Dream. There’s even a hint of Georgio Moroder on “Digitalis”, which
kind of reminds me of Moroder’s “Theme From Midnight Express”. My favorite
tracks are probably the two most driving numbers, “Legacy” and “Surface to Air”,
both of which would sound right at home in a seventies Italian horror film. But
the most ambitious composition here is “Night Rhythms”, which clocks in at
almost twenty minutes and pulls off the difficult feat of remaining interesting
for the entire running time. Definitely not for everyone, but if you like this
style of music pick this up immediately. (Bob Ignizio)