First things first: this is not your father’s Molly Hatchet.<\/p>\n
Following a seven-year layoff from the studio, Danny Joe Brown
\nand crew were just about ready to take another shot at fame.
\nUnfortunately, serious illness hit Brown (he had been a diabetic
\nfor years), effectively ending his stint with the band and leaving
\nonly keyboardist John Galvin as a link to the band’s first stage.
\nBrown personally selected Phil McCormack to handle the vocal
\nduties, and his choice turned out to be ideal.<\/p>\n
So anyone looking at
\nDevil’s Canyon<\/i> to be a sequel to
\nFlirtin’ With Disaster<\/i> is going to walk away sorely
\ndisappointed. However, if you accept the fact that Molly Hatchet
\nwas starting life anew, with an all-new lineup and an all-new
\nsound, then you’ll find that this album turns out to be quite
\nenjoyable, albeit with a few missteps along the way.<\/p>\n
The band’s leaders now were undoubtedly McCormack (whose vocals
\ndo sound a lot like Brown’s) and guitarist Bobby Ingram, who whips
\nout some licks which never would have been dreamed of in the first
\nincarnation of Molly Hatchet. The guitar solo on “Tatanka” almost
\nsounds like it could have been lifted from a heavy metal band’s
\nrepertoire, which is both surprising and welcome. For those who do
\nneed the link to the past, Galvin is given plenty of room to shine
\nas well, and he uses his time in the limelight to his
\nadvantage.<\/p>\n
The opening track “Down From The Mountain” does conjure up the
\nband’s original sound, though I honestly don’t remember slide
\nguitar being part of Molly Hatchet’s guitar trio back then.
\nOverall, this is a powerful track, and one which should have been
\ngiven a lot more attention than it actually received – in fact,
\nthere are a few numbers on this disc which could have been hits on
\nrock radio had playlists been set by people, not corporations. (Not
\nthat I’m passionate on the subject.) Likewise, “Rolling Thunder”
\nand the title track are real barn-burners which let the listener
\nknow that the second generation of Molly Hatchet is here, and is
\nhere for the long run.<\/p>\n
Interestingly enough, the best track on
\nDevil’s Canyon<\/i> turns out to be an acoustic version of
\n“Dreams I’ll Never See,” the old Allman Brothers Band number which
\ngraced Molly Hatchet’s self-titled debut back in 1978. Linking the
\npast to the present was risky, but the band stays true to their
\noriginal version and makes this one a lot of fun to listen to. It
\nalso makes me wonder what an all-acoustic album from Molly Hatchet
\nwould be like.<\/p>\n
Yet there are some growing pains evident on
\nDevil’s Canyon<\/i> – though none which the band couldn’t
\novercome given time. Tracks like “Tatanka” and “The Journey” are
\nones which need to grow on you, while others like “Heartless Land”
\nand “Eat Your Heart Out” suggest that they could have used a little
\nmore work, falling a little flat. And who would have imagined that
\nMolly Hatchet would do a love song with “The Look In Your
\nEyes”?<\/p>\n
\nDevil’s Canyon<\/i> did re-establish Molly Hatchet as a name to
\nbe reckoned with after an extended absence, but while there is
\nplenty to cheer about with this one, it also showed that the band
\nwas still re-discovering just where they belonged in a musical
\natmosphere which was quite different than the first time they had
\nto deal with this in 1978. Still, this one is worth searching
\nout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5906],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-37956","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-molly-hatchet","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37956","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=37956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37956"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37956"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}