What I’m about to say will shock many people: Warrant has put
\nout a really good album. (I will pause now while the diehard
\nmetalheads can stop laughing at me.)<\/p>\n
It may seem impossible to believe, but the band that was
\nresponsible for such light-weight drivel as “Cherry Pie” regrouped
\nand found their focus. Their first album as Warrant ’96 (I don’t
\nknow if it was their only – CMC International’s web site has been
\ndown for a week),
\nBelly To Belly<\/i>, challenges the listener’s preconceived
\nnotions of the band as well as the definition of hard rock. While
\nthere are some rough edges here, the bulk of it is surprisingly
\ngood.<\/p>\n
It doesn’t seem like anything has changed at first. As Jani
\nLane’s vocals begin on the opening track “In The End (There’s
\nNothing)”, it sounds underpowered, despite a great rhythm track
\ncreated byguitarists Rick Steier and Erik Turner, bassist Jerry
\nDixon and drummer Bobby Borg. But a well-crafted song like this is
\nbound to overpower any weaknesses – and though it takes a couple of
\nlistens, it succeeds.<\/p>\n
Warrant seem to have dispensed with the cock-rock that marked
\ntheir decline, and instead concentrated on the music and its
\nvarious forms. From light ballads with a serious message (“Room
\nWith A View”) to kick-ass rockers (“Vertigo”), Warrant is out to
\nearn your respect. They even have their own little inside joke
\nabout how they might be seen by the record-buying public on “Coffee
\nHouse”: “So you think my exterior seems a little out of focus \/
\nBecause I don’t talk in cluches that people try to use to stroke
\nus.” Make no mistake, this is a new band with new blood.<\/p>\n
Even I was skeptical – I’ve had this disc lying around for
\nmonths, and finally decided to take a chance on it. If someone had
\nslapped this disc on before, you would have had a rather nasty
\nchallenge on your hands trying to convince me this was Warrant.<\/p>\n
But while the band is comfortable in the search for their
\nperfect musical voice, occasionally the search does tend to weaken
\nBelly To Belly Volume 1<\/i>. Mind you, I don’t mind hearing
\nballads mixed in with hard rockers, but it would have been nice to
\nhave received a majority of one form or another. And while I
\nappreciate the complexities of songs like “Falling Down,” these
\nwill have both long-time fans and gawkers wondering what it is
\nabout.<\/p>\n
Warrant took a big chance by not only making an album so
\ncomplex, but putting out any album while hard rock \/ heavy metal
\nwas out of the public favor and the band was all but relegated to
\nTrivial Pursuit status. If only
\nBelly To Belly Volume 1<\/i> had been given more of a chance by
\nboth consumers and radio, this band could have really enjoyed the
\nsuccess I think they earned with this disc.<\/p>\n
Warrant is still together, and is still putting out new
\nreleases, but
\nBelly To Belly Volume 1<\/i> should be picked up as a primer for
\nwhat to expect in the late ’90s from one of the last successful
\nhard rock-lite bands. Whatever you thought of Warrant’s past,
\nBelly To Belly Volume 1<\/i>‘s strengths are no laughing
\nmatter… and I’m not joking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7267],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38704","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-warrant-96","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38704","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=38704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38704"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}