  
As much as the in ring wrestling return of Fozzy’s
lead vocalist Chris Jericho was highly anticipated,
so was the build up to the new release from one
of Atlanta’s finest upcoming hard rock acts,
Fozzy themselves. Having thus far ridden on the
hype brought to the table by Jericho from his
WWE career,the band had instant success without
really needing the music to back it up, now however
as the gimmick runs dry they really need to start
pushing themselves as in my personal opinion,
the bands material prior to this release failed
to hit the bar as Jericho’s vocals were
less than impressive and the music was far from
pushing the boundaries. With this new album being
claimed by the band as their “Black Album”
they’ve got themselves some pretty big shoes
to fill as this was the album that skyrocketed
Metallica’s career, can this new release
do the same for Fozzy?
Starting with the album’s already debuted
lead single “Sandpaper” which features
Avenged Sevenfold’s very own M Shadows providing
guest vocals which is actually a match made in
heaven! Jericho’s vocals blend together
superbly with those of Shadows providing a really
refined distinctive feel that I’d never
have been able to predict; this alongside the
bouncy beat and chunky distortion makes for quite
the lead single. I’m very surprised as on
past material I haven’t really been the
biggest fan of Jericho’s vocals but from
what I can see present on this album I can safely
say that my opinion has now been reversed. “Blood
Happens” is an extremely heavy follow on
from the lead single and takes that “heavy
yet melodic style” that Jericho stated Fozzy
is all about to the next level, it has a calm
melody and a gnarly breakdown that drops at various
points throughout the duration as well as some
screaming vocals!
The finale interests me in particular, an 11 and
a half minute song? From Fozzy? I naturally had
to check that shit out almost immediately and
I didn’t have high hopes as normally I’m
not interested in songs that have a duration of
longer than around 6 minutes but this one has
managed to engross me long enough for me to see
out the entirety as the time seems to pass fairly
quickly. I have to say though at times Jericho’s
vocals remind me of Ozzy Osbourne, especially
on “Inside My Head”, “Sin and
Bones” and “Dark Passenger”.
On the whole there are a couple of things I would
personally have changed but apart from a very
select few things I have absolutely no critique
on the album; it has a great collection of both
modern and classic styles, vast range of varied
material, exceptional improvement on all parts
from the past material and even though this shouldn’t
be a factor a pretty wicked album cover. Will
this be the band’s “Black Album”
as they hope? Only time will be able to tell whether
or not that is the case but from what I’ve
noticed here it’s a cracking album.
4.5/5
Review by James Webb
|
