In all respects,
\nNo Guts… No Glory<\/i>, the fifth release from Jacksonville,
\nFlorida-based boogie boys Molly Hatchet should have been a fan’s
\ndream come true. This disc marked the return of lead singer Danny
\nJoe Brown after a two-album absence, and introduced new member John
\nGalvin (who was a member of Brown’s solo band) on keyboards.<\/p>\n
And, in some respects, this disc does show a return to form – at
\nleast, the first half of it does. Like its brother albums,
\nNo Guts… No Glory<\/i> has some extremely strong moments, as
\nwell as some very weak tracks. The only difference between this
\ndisc and the previous effort
\nTake No Prisoners<\/i> is that it’s a little harder for this one
\nto regain its equilibrium after hitting a lemon of a song.<\/p>\n
First, the strengths – and, make no mistake, there are enough
\nhighlights on this album to make me recommend you checking it out.
\nBrown’s return to the fold shows that his vocals, in many ways, had
\nmatured since his last time fronting Hatchet on
\nFlirtin’ With Disaster<\/i>. Listen to his style of singing on
\ntracks like “Fall Of The Peacemakers” or “Under The Gun,” and you
\ncan hear a marked inprovement. (Not that Brown’s vocals were bad on
\nthe first two Molly Hatchet discs; if anything, his efforts here
\nmake it sound like Brown had finally found his comfort zone.)
\nLikewise, the addition of Galvin to the band is a welcome one,
\nadding to the solid musicianship already present among the members.
\nYou need proof? Check out the instrumental “Both Sides” and listen
\nto the solid interplay. While this track brings to mind some of the
\nwork of The Allman Brothers Band, the jams never stretch too long,
\nand the group seems to know to end the song with the listener
\nwanting a whole lot more instead of risking overstaying its
\nwelcome. Dare I also mention the inclusion of some acoustic and
\n12-string guitar work within the songs? I dare, I dare.<\/p>\n
And, in terms of the first half of the disc (at least in terms
\nof the original track order – for reasons I don’t know, this record
\nwas pulled off the shelves and re-released with new artwork and a
\nnew track order. Pity, ’cause the way it was, the first five songs
\nwere absolutely killer. Hearing tracks like “Both Sides,” “On The
\nProwl” and “Fall Of The Peacemakers” would leave you thinking
\nwithout a doubt that Molly Hatchet was most definitely back.<\/p>\n
Then again, maybe the tracks were shuffled because, the way
\nthings were, the second half of the disc threatened to capsize the
\nwhole ship. I’ll leave “Sweet Dixie” out of the critical drubbing,
\nthough it hardly seemed necessary at this stage in the game for
\nBrown and company to wave the Confederate flag to their heritage.
\nThe three tracks in question – “What Does It Matter,” “What’s It
\nGonna Take” and “Kinda Like Love” – make one wonder just what the
\nhell the boys were thinking. Both “What Does It Matter” and “What’s
\nIt Gonna Take” sound like tired old re-treads, while “Kinda Like
\nLove” is a truck-stop lovefest gone terribly wrong. There’s a word
\nfor songs like these: buzzkill.<\/p>\n
To be fair, though, Molly Hatchet was again undergoing a
\nregrouping with Brown rejoining, so I guess some leniance should be
\ngranted. Likewise, the strong moments on this album do show the
\npower that the band had, even after five albums. Yet
\nNo Guts… No Glory<\/i> is a disc which could have been an
\nabsolute barnburner, yet falls flat a few too many times for my
\nlevel of comfort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5906],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-37947","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-molly-hatchet","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37947","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=37947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37947"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}