It’s tough enough to review an independent band whose roots are
\nin a city far from your own. When the band undergoes a major
\nline-up change after the release of their debut album, it makes any
\ncriticism of the previous work that much tougher.<\/p>\n
Case in point: The Snap Dragons, a Philadelphia-based group who
\nsent me their debut cassette earlier this month. Since the
\nrecording of their album, bassist Rich Randolph and drummer Tim
\nGuthridge have left the band, leaving only Ronnie Henry from this
\nlineup to continue the work. (I learned from the band’s home page
\nthey are now a foursome, and are looking to have new material out
\nearly next year.) So, whatever I say about this tape is kind of
\nmuted by recent events, and their sound now may be radically
\ndifferent than what I heard in these 12 songs. To make a long story
\nshort (too late), take this review with a grain of salt.<\/p>\n
Now, then… The Snap Dragons tend to jump from genre to genre,
\noften rather smoothly. They are as comfortable in ballad mode as
\nthey are cranking out a pseudo-metal song that sounds like
\nsomething I’d have heard in the ’80s. The jumping from style to
\nstyle may be distracting to some listeners, but I thought it went
\nrather well.<\/p>\n
Henry’s vocals and guitar work are the key elements to
\nThe Snap Dragons<\/i>. His work on tracks like “Late” is
\nextraordinary — but his vocals do have a limit. At their best,
\nhe’s kind of like Bon Scott; at worst, he sounds like Faster
\nPussycat’s Taime Downe — yeech. (The first chorus of “For
\nTomorrow” is a bit painful to listen to — be warned.)<\/p>\n
While The Snap Dragons could have built a solid career on MOR
\nballads, they’re not afraid to turn up the crunch a bit. Songs like
\n“Crawl” could have passed for a Pantera throw-away, and is quite
\nenjoyable, while “911,” despite the corny theme (then again, isn’t
\nthis true for a lot of the glam-metal of the ’80s?), is a guilty
\npleasure. I do wish the guitars had been turned up just a bit,
\nthough — and Guthridge’s drum sound just isn’t crisp enough,
\nthough it comes close on “Late” and “Hour Glass.” (With no producer
\nlisted on the credits, I don’t know who to yell at.)<\/p>\n
But for the weaknesses, The Snap Dragons do show their talents,
\nand they show them often. The songwriting is stronger than one
\nmight have expected; “It’s Not Fair” is a decent effort that
\nshowcases the songwriting talents. Guess these next two points are
\nmoot, though – Randolph’s bass provides a solid anchor (was that
\nhim doing the fade-in work on “Clay”?), and Guthridge is a talented
\nenough drummer – if only he could turn it down just a tad on songs
\nlike “It’s Not Fair,” which doesn’t always need the stylish snare
\nwork.<\/p>\n
It’s too early in the band’s career to tell if they’ll make the
\nnational scene any time soon, and it’s far too early to see how the
\nchange from a trio to a four-piece will change the sound. But even
\nfor the flaws,
\nThe Snap Dragons<\/i> is worth checking out, both for the
\nsongwriting and for the indulgence factor. I’ll be interested in
\nhearing future work from this group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5903],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-35846","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-snap-dragons","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35846"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35846"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}