Weird Al once sang “It’s all about the Pentium baby.” When
\nlistening to this CD, he might have sung “It’s all about track
\norder, baby.”<\/p>\n
Or something like that.<\/p>\n
Atomic Bitchwax, a sludge rock trio with a deep homage routinely
\npaid to the fuzzy guitar riff rock of the ’70s, starts out their
\n2002 release with a cover of AC\/DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.”
\nImmediately, vocalist\/bassist Chris Kosnik annoys. He’s in agony,
\nmuch like my ears were as I listened to him screaming. Sing and it
\nwon’t hurt. Musically, the trio manages to play the song in the
\ntraditional way without adding any new dimensions to it. And that’s
\nwhere my personal belief about cover songs comes in. In playing
\nanother band’s song, there should be something that makes the song
\nunique as compared to the original. If you dig out a great comp
\nfrom Fearless Records called
\nPunk Goes Metal<\/i>, you’ll hear punk bands that take
\ntraditional heavy metal songs and play them. The bands that succeed
\non that comp are the bands that add their own element to the song.
\nFor example, Bigwig covers Slayer’s “War Ensemble.” They put a jazz
\ninterlude in the song. Slayer and jazz. That’s different, that’s
\nunique and that’s taking a song and making it theirs by using
\ncreativity. So Atomic Bitchwax’s cover of “Dirty Deeds” didn’t go
\nover well.<\/p>\n
Second track”Liquor Queen” is much better. The song starts with
\na low volume intro — think the very beginning of Metallica’s
\n“Orion” –> before Mundell rips into a riff straight from the
\n’70s. Then Ackerman and Kosnik launch their respective parts and
\nthe song takes off. Munell powers the song with energy. I could
\nenvision the three musicians watching each other as the song goes
\nthrough the sections in the song . . . and smiling.<\/p>\n
That’s all well and good, but there’s more. Atomic Bitchwax
\nshould have have put third track “Get Your Gear” as the first song.
\nPeriod. The song fades in with the trio playing a great groove,
\npowered by Ed Mundell’s guitar riff and the interesting drumming
\nfrom Keith Ackerman. I love this song. It has a simplistic main
\nriff and when Kosnik sings, he’s, well, singing. His style fits the
\nsong. He doesn’t scream. It’s a much better first impression than
\nhis style on “Dirty Deeds.” The song is developed and is
\ninteresting throughout.<\/p>\n
“Cold Day in Hell” starts out with Ackerman marking time with
\nthe snare before Kosnik and Mundell enter. At the 2:50 mark,
\nMundell rips into a solo. This is the most satisfying musical
\npiece, perhaps more developed than “Liquor Queen.” At the 4:50
\nmark, the guitar and bass stop and Ackerman plays a pattern that
\nmimics the guitar and bass parts. The guitar and bass re-enter,
\nMundell plays another solo, riddled with effects.<\/p>\n
The remaining songs, “Spit Blood,””Black Trans Am” and “U Want I
\nShould” are more of the same. “Spit Blood” includes some percussion
\nunder Mundell’s soloing. “Black Trans Am” brings Kosnik full
\ncircle, screaming about a car. “U Want I Should” starts out
\npromising, with a quick paced riff that made my daughter in
\nkindergarten start dancing and then grinds to a slower-paced
\ngroove.<\/p>\n
Overall, these seven songs just didn’t sit well with me. I found
\nMundell’s guitar riffs interesting, Ackerman’s drumming creative
\nand inspiring, and Kosnik’s performance to be a mixed bag. On one
\nhand, he shows that he can sing decently on “Get Your Gear” and on
\nthe other, he screams too much on “Dirty Deeds” and Black Trans
\nAm.” It is fortunate for our ears that this band focuses on
\ninstrumentals. Had there been more of Kosnik\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6837],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-37587","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-atomic-bitchwax","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37587","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37587"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}