Back in the late eighties, Cry
Wolf were as much a part of the LA rock scene as Poison,
Motley Crue and LA Guns.
But they only managed one album, '
Crunch', released in 1990. This was a harder, darker affair than the products of their peer group and categorically distanced them from hair and glam rock.
Armed with a set of songs propagated in the seedy underbelly of LA's rock'n'roll scene, the band's abrasive studio recording surprised many but did not impress enough to warrant a continuing career.
Twenty years later, jostling with numerous other bands jamming up the road leading back from eighties' obscurity, Cry
Wolf present
'Twenty Ten'.
And it is awesome.
From
'Crunch' to '
Twenty Ten' was not a huge leap. This is modern melodic rock, edgier, grittier, more challenging than its eighties' predecessor. A generation later,
'Twenty Ten' is a natural progression from
'Crunch'.
We've all grown up and so has the music.
Lyrically, the songs can be uncomfortably raw. Vocals are in your face and the choruses and hooks are swarming with minor key harmonies.
'Shed', '
Crutch' and
'Dysfunctional' form the opening salvo. Three song titles that say a lot before you hear them. No crying in the rain, running in the wind or walking down the boulevard of love here.
And fans who enjoyed
'Crunch' will know this is no radical reinvention.
It would be easy to be dazzled by Steve McKnight's constantly and consistently inventive guitar fills, frills and furbelows as well as his heavy rock riffs and low slung solos. (His elegant, carefully contoured electric guitar contribution to the poignant
'Black Bouquet' is arguably the album's high point). Tim Hall's achingly - and some times menacingly - articulate vocal contribution is equally impressive, but neither would be quite as effective without bass player, Phil Deckard's and drummer, Chris Moore's rhythmic bedrock.
Other standouts include
'Number 43', a, funky, densely constructed hard rock song, driven by a pounding rhythm section and busy axework, recalling
Lionsheart and Lynch Mob.
'Stones Of Yesterday' fuses blues licks with thick cut, Led Zeppelin-esque riffage.
The sexually allusive
'Everywhere' goes harder and deeper than anything that's come before, penetrating metal territory, kicking up a heavily percussive storm.
There's plenty more to enthuse over on
'Twenty Ten' and if you like your melodic rock to come with an uncompromising style, sound and content, this is it.
Written by
Brian Monday, July 26, 2010
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