KTD, or Kick The Dog, come outta Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. They play a hook heavy blend of classic rock and modern melodic hard rock.
The first four cuts on their new record "Territory" contain the most pop oriented songs while the final four cuts break the balls out and rock hard and heavy.
Pretty much a DIY album, the production is awesome! Crystal clear! Layered vocals, killer production tricks, and they leave room to breath which allows the songs a 3 dimensional quality that breaks from the normal 4 piece rock band sound. I would liken the production and space of the songs to a good
Foreigner album's production.
There are plenty of Zepplin sounding riffs laden about but i wouldn't call them direct rip offs...just a Page influence coming out for sure!
The album treads some familiar waters but they do it with style and can easily claim their own sound.
Let's do a track by track:
Room To Breathe is the album opener and it sets the tone for the first four exercises in melody. Starting with a tremolo effected clean guitar that turns to a chorused up Telecaster sound. A Zepplin flavored riff happens in this one. Reminds me of a rocking ballad courtesy of early Great White. Plenty of dynamics in the instrumentation give the variety needed to keep my interest going. A killer chorus and bridge section will have you humming this puppy for days. One of my favorite tracks!
The Bed I Made keeps the pop pace going with an almost Duran Duran like drum programming decorated with soft key pads and effected guitar. Think Duran Duran's "The Chauffeur" and you'll get a taste of what I'm trying to describe. The bridge hits on the Zepplin flavor for a change in the pace of the song with a very nice bluesy guitar solo to bring things back to the verses and a final round of the catchy chorus.
Fly An acoustic tinged singer/songwriter type song with another Zepplin middle eastern flavored pre-chorus. This one starts off softer but gets heavier soon after the start. This one is a bit pretentious for my taste and leaves a distaste for corporate rock in my mouth. Sounds like a cheesy late 80's movie soundtrack song. Least favorite track of all!
Here And Now Opens with a Middle Eastern flavored riff on a rock guitar sound. A foretaste of the heavier stuff to follow after this track. Another Zepplin flavored track which is cool but is starting to get old. More variety I says, more variety! Good tune but standard catchy rock chorus type radio fodder. Great guitar solo though.
Shake The Cage Hair metal anyone? This is nasty sex rock from the likes of Poison, Crue, Great White, late Def Leppard. Saving grace is no appearance of Zepplin riffs! Whew! Just a chunky rocker that makes all those groupies of the slut persuasion do their wanna be exotic dancer routines! Cheap beer and sex anyone? hehe. Good tune for the style.
Shine A descending four half steps riff opens this shuffling blues flavored rocker. More in line with Winger, Damn Yankees style of music.
Not a bad tune but that descending four half steps thing is so damn old and been done a blue million times that it makes me sick! Come on guys, I'd expect more from a band this talented. 2nd least favorite.
Bleed Hello Zepplin again! Not a good thing! Still the chorus is great. Kingdom Clone anyone? Uh I mean Kingdom Come...yeah you've heard it before. Anyway the solo is great too. Good moments except for Zepplin B.S.
Living In Sin Final track is a slower rocker returning them to the pop edged tunes of the first half of the record. I think this is where they do their best work...the pop stuff. More flavors and unique which sets them apart from some of the bands I mentioned
in the other songs.
2nd favorite tune!
So to sum it all up.....been done, but been done by a lot of bands who couldn't come this close to copying other bands and actually retaining a sound of their own. I look forward to seeing where these guys go. Fans of 80's hair metal and rocked out pop tunes will certainly dig this record. Only points deducted because of Zepplinitis.
The vocals are great, talented singing all the way through. Great guitar colors and solos. Supreme production and a great rhythm section round out what could be a really good band after they find a bit more of themselves in the songs and tone down some of the obvious influences.
They have killer flash based web site at
www.ktdrocks.com where you can hear some samples and get to know the members better.
Written by
David Sunday, March 21, 2004
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