It is far too easy to write off the second coming of Molly
\nHatchet as a “cover band” trying to replicate the original. It is
\nalso an incorrect assumption.<\/p>\n
No matter what your opinion of the resurrection of the Southern
\nrock band’s moniker may be, there is no denying that Phil McCormack
\nand crew were most definitely trying to find their own unique voice
\nwhile maintaining a healthy respect for the band’s first decade of
\nlife.
\nSilent Reign Of Heroes<\/i>, their 1998 effort (and second under
\nthe new lineup), finds the band still searching for that voice
\nwhile staying a little too close to the pattern they created with
\ntheir previous effort
\nDevil’s Canyon<\/i>, down to the prerequisite acoustic cover
\nversion of a Danny Joe Brown-era track. Yet there are signs that
\nthe band was close to coming into their own; they just hadn’t made
\nit there quite yet.<\/p>\n
The first part of the disc does seem to be too much of a clone
\nof
\nDevil’s Canyon<\/i> for their own good. “Mississippi Moon Dog”
\nhas the same bayou-style opening that “Down From The Mountain” did,
\neven if the former isn’t as hard of a rocker as the older track.
\nLikewise, “World Of Trouble” shares quite a bit of familiarity with
\n“Rolling Thunder” – and, look, the third song on both discs is the
\ntitle track, and both tracks clock in over the six-minute mark!
\n(The difference here, though, is that “Silent Reign Of Heroes” is a
\nfairly decent track, conjuring up images of “Fall Of The
\nPeacemakers” – but we’ll get to that one in a moment.)<\/p>\n
For all of the parallels between the two discs, though,
\nSilent Reign Of Heroes<\/i> does try to distance itself from
\nMolly Hatchet’s past through its songwriting and performances on a
\nselect few tracks. “Miss Saturday Night” sounds like it could have
\nbeen the hit single from this disc, while “Just Remember (You’re
\nThe Only One)”, the love song of the disc, turns out to be the
\nstrongest performance, and is anything but a disappointment.<\/p>\n
\nSilent Reign Of Heroes<\/i> is a disc of paralells and opposites.
\nWhereas the track selection sometimes seems to mirror their
\nprevious release, the average length of the tracks is shorter this
\ntime around – and that actually works to Molly Hatchet’s benefit.
\nIn a sense, it’s almost like the band was forced to deliver its
\nmusical payload without allowing itself room to noodle around, and
\nthe overall sound is much tighter. Tracks like “Junk Yard Dawg” and
\n“Dead And Gone (Redneck Song)” are proof positive of this
\nshift.<\/p>\n
I do wonder, though, what made Molly Hatchet choose to do
\nanother cover of a first-generation number, especially when “Fall
\nOf The Peacemakers” already had an acoustic vein to it. Make no
\nmistake, this is an interesting version and is well worth your
\ntime, but it is a bit perplexing of a choice. (Not that I could
\nidentify a track off the top of my head which they should have
\nperformed as an alternate.)<\/p>\n
So the ultimate question remains: How does
\nSilent Reign Of Heroes<\/i> rank in Molly Hatchet’s discography,
\nand is it worth your money? While there is not as much musical
\ngrowth as I’d like to have seen this time around, there are signs
\nthat the band is becoming less a caricature of who old-time fans
\nwanted them to be and more of a musical force for the here and now.
\nIt’s a start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5906],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-37961","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\/37961","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=37961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37961"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}