This review is brought to you by the adjective “stupidly,” for
\nactions that can be described as such led to the creation of the
\nband Union.<\/p>\n
I am obliged to start this review by mentioning that Union
\nvocalist John Corabi was most recently in Motley Crue and that
\nguitarist Bruce Kulick came from Kiss when Gene Simmons and Paul
\nStanley, stupidly, decided to reunite with Peter Criss and Ace
\nFrehley, play 20 year old songs, and wear Halloween makeup.<\/p>\n
Consider the union of this band: Kiss and Motley Crue. Together?
\nFor me, even in the heights of the late 80s metal movement, I
\nwouldn’t put these two on the same page. While the Crue was out
\ndoing the glamful
\nTheater Of Pain<\/i>, Kiss was in the throes of one of my
\nfavorite tapes
\nAsylum<\/i>, exploring solid metal pop. Sure, the Crue ripped off
\nthe 70s theatrics of Kiss and did plenty of interviews where they
\nclaimed Kiss was a huge influence. But musically, the guitars,
\nbass, vocals, and drums were never really on the same page to my
\nears. Nikki Sixx will never be fit to tune the bass Gene Simmons
\nplays. Likewise, the immortally overrated Tommy Lee could never,
\nnor will ever, touch any Kiss drummer, including the deceased Eric
\nCarr, blondie Eric Singer or their current drummer Peter Criss. Lee
\nmight be able to sing as terribly as Criss, but not play.<\/p>\n
Yet, here is
\nUnion<\/i>, uniting these two bands. Amazing.<\/p>\n
Still, John Corabi didn’t know any of that theatrical Motley
\nCrue. No, he was stuck singing crap like “Hooligan’s Holiday” and
\n“Welcome to the Numb” (read “Dumb”) on their self-titled disc. And
\nhe was brought in to replace Vince Neil, who stupidly wanted to
\nrace cars rather than make music. (That was a resounding “Duh!” you
\njust heard.) When Neil got smart, and wanted back in to Crue,
\nCorabi was out on the streets.<\/p>\n
\nUnion<\/i> will send Corabi back out on the touring streets.
\nTheir debut self-titled disc is full of smart poppy metal hooks
\nfrom Kulick and soulful vocals from Corabi. The rhythm section is
\nsmart and fits in with both elements. The sonic assault of “Old Man
\nWise” sets the disc off on the right trail. The drums are
\nmesmerizing and played smartly on this track and throughout the
\ndisc. “Around Again” and “Pain Behind Your Eyes” keep things on the
\nright track.<\/p>\n
But it is songs like “Let It Flow” and “Empty Soul” where the
\ndifference emerges between this band and the rest of the genre:
\nthese songs don’t suck.<\/p>\n
If any weakness, and granted, I’m digging deep for one, could be
\ndrawn from listening to this disc, it would be that Kulick
\nstretches out too infrequently. Kulick is one of my favorite
\nguitarists and, for more than just the first ten seconds of
\n“Tangerine,” I wanted a full-blown kick ass guitar solo. Doesn’t
\nhappen. True, his playing does fit into the role of playing with
\nthe band and I can’t find fault for that. It doesn’t make the disc
\nany less of a great disc.<\/p>\n
Aside from that, this disc is chock full of catchy riffs and
\ngood songs; nothing that I wouldn’t be glad to hear 20 years down
\nthe road.<\/p>\n
I read in
\nMetal Edge<\/i> magazine that the band is going to be touring in
\nsupport of this disc, playing Kiss songs and a couple of Crue
\nsongs. They shouldn’t bother. They should focus on the future,
\nwhich is bright for this band.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7318],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-38812","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-union","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38812","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=38812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38812"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}