A promising debut from Sweden's Mary's Creek, who desperately want to be Kings X, but are perfectly happy to stir more straightforward melodic rock-isms into the mix.
Clearly influenced as much by hard rock's illustrious past - there are faint echoes of
Deep Purple and
Whitesnake here - as by contemporary rock's low slung stylings, Mary's Creek ensure the heaviosity is liberally leavened with sturdy choruses and sinuous hooks.
But after the first three tracks, '
A Little Bit Of Everything', '
Down' and '
She' - cracking melodic hard rock - the band veer off tangentially into metal territory, biting off and chewing up the distinctly downbeat '
There Is No God' and '
Things That You Do'. Both underpinned by bleak, cold, crushing riffs.
Doesn't make them bad people of course, both songs are aggressively melodic, well constructed and cleverly arranged.
'I Don't Believe',
'I Can Feel It' and
'New Religion' continue in this vein, in the mistaken belief that relentlessly samey anthems of desolation and despair will cut it it today's cynical age. In fairness though, the melody count remains high.
If anything, the tracks get heavier and the sound becomes more contemporary as we move toward the end of the album. Alice In Chains and
Soundgarden replace the classic rock influences on tracks like '
Hold On' and '
State Of Mind', a mis-step partially redeemed by the huge, Kings X like '
Dying For A New Day', a magnificently apposite album closer.
Musically and melodically, Mary's Creek clearly have what it takes, and very obviously they know how to pen a memorable tune.
Equally clearly, they need to decide on which direction their music needs to take. Potentially, their current mix of styles could alienate both fans of the past, and lovers of the here and now.
Written by
Brian Thursday, May 10, 2007
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