Dude, it's not high art. This is rock n'roll. So goes what would be the unexpected for a solo album that is lead up by one of progressive metal's most versatile and recognizable voices. In fact, he's been the poster child for heavier proggy stuff since he first crooned on that seminal
Symphony X album years ago back, known now to all as "The Damnation Game". His higher profile projects have also circled around the artsy, such as guest appearances with Arjen Luccassen's Ayreon, so "Atomic Soul" is quite the departure indeed.
What we have here is quite the surprise for those that are anticipating some kind of extension of the
Symphony X brand, because this is another world away. It's not even in the same category. Sure, they share their rock roots and a few key musicians but this is Allen's baby and he's made it clear in the past that his influences stem from the productive dawn of metal in the 70s and every nuance of that shines through here with pride and joy.
Atomic Soul is a blast from the past, fuming with power and bristling with the blues. It is hard not to warm up to this melting pot of the sounds from days of yore. Lots of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin,
Rainbow/
Deep Purple, Bad Company, and some
UFO for good measure and many more ghosts of yesterday pop up and parade around within the songs up for grabs here.
Russell Allen has a great voice for this type of dirty devil rock. That has been plain for ages as he has crooned his heart out for gentle proggy ballads and roared like a demon alike soaring from the depths of a
Dio clone hell without skipping a beat so it comes as no surprise that he can tackle this style with flair and an all out vocal assault attack. This puppy is a true standout platform for his voice. It's the showcase of the aural cinema, and puts on quite the elaborate show. He emotes, he howls, he roars, he sings with such aggressiveness and then converts to a wild and wooly swing that will leave the old schoolers breathless and clamoring for more. Prog fans might be left scratching their heads in bewilderment but those raised on classic rock radio will be heaving their fists in the air in fits of excitement through it all.
And Allen doesn't just limit himself with vocal duties but also dabbles in every other instrument save for the drums, which he leaves for a professional. He handles keys, bass and even guitar with a simplistic efficiency. There is nothing here that requires too much mind bending technicality and when the situation does arise, he calls in the professionals such as seasoned vets like SyX axe slinger Michael Romeo and Stratovarius' quirky keyboard wizard Jens Johansson. If these guys can't improve your overall output then you've got a problem and for what this is, there's nay a hitch to be found.
I love the simple yet rough edged growl of the openers like
"Blackout" and
"Unjustified" which seem like some unholy mixture of
Deep Purple from "Burn" and The Scorpions. The vocals scorch, the guitars rip and it's just a hard rockin' party from start to finish. No frills necessary, these tracks ram home with crushing authority.
Then somewhere along the way it hits with me. This is like a harder rock version of what
Joe Lynn Turner has been pumping out in his solo endeavors all these years except with a more of a Ronnie James
Dio type vocalist blowing his lungs out instead of that bluesy more straightforward croon of Turner. Perhaps it was
"Angel" that put this image in the mind. You would be hard pressed to match this voice as being Allen's. He sounds quite a lot like a weird mix of Ray Gillen and Robert Mason set to crunchy guitars, and then
AOR-s out for the lovely melodic chorus.
"The Distance" sees the singing smoothing out to that lovely lightness that he developed so magically on such tracks as "Candelight Fantasia" with SyX, with the verses having more of a bite to them and being backed with fat solid chords that sound frayed at the edges. The acoustic makes a dramatic appearance for the mid portion and is a welcome texture along with the strange and beautiful synth that is ripped right out of some
Pink Floyd fever dream. Electric guitar bits poke holes through, and let a little light to shine on.
Is it thrash? Is this going to be some kind of
Megadeth thing? The vocals are even being sung from another dimension than before, seething with a gritty pulsating anger, but it swerves out into another field entirely after the mosh worthy opening that puts
"Seasons of Insanity" more along the lines of
Rainbow, even in lyrical content. With a little switch here and there and some nips and tucks this could easily pass as a some kind of
Rainbow hybrid. It's like
Rainbow's Turner crooned "Death Alley Driver" collides with some lesser known rocker from
Dio's belter "Long Live Rock N' Roll" (the album).
"Gates of Babylon"! Oh wait. no this is
"Gaia". Well atleast the inspiration here doesn't have to be questioned at all. This could easily be a
Symphony X song though. In fact, it is one of the reasons I love it so as Russell goes through his vocal identities one after another, like an attendant of a masquerade who keeps changing his costume in order to remain anonymous. Each persona he dons becomes more mysterious and exotic than the one before, the vocals shaping the song while the music is just the setting. It paints quite the backdrop however, with these Middle Eastern influences that come blowing across like sands off the desert plains. The lyrics are equally mystifying and haunting, quite a fit to the Egyptian-like theme here.
"Losin' You" stomps like a sweaty, hot n heavy panting
Whitesnake 70s tune in all its bluesy drippiness that merged with the
AOR drive of
Foreigner for the chorus from around the same time period. This is some tasty stuff here, and just begs for replays. Allen definitely has an ear to write a barn burner of a rocker, and a way with lyrics as well such as the soon-to-be-classic following bit: "You just don't understand, you think love's a late night booty call, well if I didn't hit it baby, you wouldn't come round here at all... awww you know it's true." Throw in some Giant, there's something here that I can't quite pinpoint that screams Dan Huff in the vocals. I'm sure Huff probably borrowed that special "somethin'" from someone else further in the past but it's just something that can't be shaken when listening to this one. And you know what? It's better for it.
"Saucey Jack" digs down deeper, with an almost southern barfly feel and a brush with Lynyrd Skynyrd. There's better stuff here though, so it's kinda lost on me since the sources here seem to pull this off with more authenticity than Allen, although it does sound damn good.
"Voodoo Hand" from earlier in the disc suffers from this too except it has some killer grabbing percussion and vocals that have a mesmerizing rhythm that sends me into wanting to hear some Lynch Mob.
"Voodoo" is a slow grower that will getcha in the end though, while
"Saucey" likely will stick to being just a bit on the bland side.
Another bird entirely is
"We Will Fly". It longs for the same birth era as the rest of the songs on display here but takes flight with completely different wings. Gorgeous piano from SyX's own, Michael Pinella, builds a glorious tapestry of Kansas-like proportions. You can see where the soul of
Symphony X comes from as this one glides over with a richness seen on "Through the Looking Glass" by those prog masters. A nice overblown epic is what this disc needed and this track definitely feels that void in all its excessive majesty.
"Atomic Soul" is a straight up rocker with tons of synth pounding keyboard and slice and dicing string bending that fits right along with the skull pounding music. A little unremarkable especially after having the entire rest of the album as a prime opportunity to sample the potential of what the disc is capable of producing. But it is a quick rush before the album speeds out into the distance, leaving the pleasant tingle of pure rock n roll behind as the dust settles. On its own, it's pretty "meh" but in context as a closer it's more acceptable.
Slamming hard rock with a delighting dusty and lusty vibe, make for a rockin good time that is not often duplicated in the here and now. Plenty of other vintage sounds often get resurrected for the present day treatment but this is one niche that does not often get slapped with a fresh coat of paint. It's a sound that was unique to that time period just as the hair bands are forever linked with the 80s, and refreshing to hear that it has been given the green light for an attempted comeback. Russell Allen's "Atomic Soul" sounds like it was freshly cut for music listeners' consumption in 1978 but that's the chunk of its charm right there.
Written by
Alanna Friday, May 20, 2005
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