When I first heard New York-based The Clay People in a label
\nshowcase a few months ago, I wondered if I was in the right club.
\nSandwiched in between acts that had more than some leanings towards
\nindustrial was this intense hard rock band that caused more than a
\nfew jaws to drop. In my scribbled notes from that evening, I called
\nthem “hard rock in the Pantera vein.”<\/p>\n
Their recent self-titled release (their fifth album, and first
\nfor Slipdisc) partially proves me wrong; the lyrical shouting is
\nminimized, and the end result is some solid hard rock that isn’t
\nafraid to take a bend towards a softer edge.<\/p>\n
Vocalist Dan Neet leads the band through eleven tracks that
\nchallenge the listener from almost every angle imaginable. The dual
\nguitar work of Brian McGarvey and Mike Guzzardi does a Texas
\none-two on your eardrums, resulting in some of the most pleasurable
\npain you’ll ever experience. Bassist Dan Walsh acts as a solid
\nanchor for the other axemen, while drummer Dan Dinsmore shows he
\nknows his way around the trap kit quite well; some of his fills
\nwere very impressive.<\/p>\n
The lead-off single, “Awake,” helps me maintain my belief in the
\nPantera-like aspects of the band; Neet goes from a more gentle
\nvocal to an ear-piercing screech of the chorus that serves as an
\naudio alarm clock for any listener who wasn’t paying close
\nattention. The track is a logical, even perfect, choice for the
\nfirst single, and demonstrates the power that The Clay People have
\nright off the bat.<\/p>\n
However, if all you think this band is about is screaming, then
\nkeep listening, Dr. Livingston, ’cause you have a lot more
\ndiscovery to do. Tracks like “Calling Spaceship: Damien Grief” and
\n“Car Bomb” continue their demonstrations of the band’s prowess,
\nwhile pushing the more melodic side of The Clay People’s music and
\nlyrics. “Car Bomb” is a track I remember as being rather intense in
\nconcert; this version caught me a bit off guard with Neet’s
\nclear-as-a-bell vocals. (In fact, the clarity of the vocals is
\nsomething that struck me throughout this album; I’m sure a good
\nportion of the credit goes to producer Neil Kernon.) “Who Am I?”,
\nthe closing track of
\nThe Clay People<\/i>, starts off with a killer guitar riff and
\nworks around it for the entire song, creating what could logically
\nbe the next single.<\/p>\n
However,
\nThe Clay People<\/i> is an album not afraid to show a softer
\nside, which comes in the guise of songs like “Ghostwishing”. Tracks
\nlike these are pleasant surprises that are scattered in the album –
\nalmost as if they were designed to help give your ears and brain a
\nbreak.<\/p>\n
The downside to The Clay People’s musical attack is that it
\nstarts to get old the further you get into the album – as a result,
\nyou might find your mind drifting during tracks like “Raygun Girls”
\nand “Dying To Be You”. It took me several tries to get through this
\ndisc – though once I did, I found the effort was well worth the
\ntime. Despite the fact that The Clay People are veterans of the
\nscene, I’m willing to cut them some slack, as this lineup is still
\na rather new one for the band. I think once they gel together a
\nlittle more, the blemishes of this album will disappear.<\/p>\n
\nThe Clay People<\/i> could be called a sleeper hit of 1998 – if
\nwe’re not careful, it could burst through big-time on both
\nalternative and hard rock outlets. Here’s hoping at least one side
\ngives them the chance… this album proves they’ve earned it,
\nthough they’re not at the finish line quite yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7445],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39086","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-clay-people","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39086","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=39086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39086"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39086"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}