Sixty Watt Shaman - Reason to live
Heavy US rock from Sixty Watt Shaman. This American band's music is rooted in 70's bands like Black Sabbath. Sixty Watt Shaman is just more forceful and mixing their roots with southern Rock and recent Heavy Metal bands like Pantera (vocal wise) and Metallica (loose feel). The solo All My Love sounds like a rewritten Pulling Teeth from "Kill Em All".

The production by Scott Redder is simply excellent. The record has a dry 70's sound but still quite powerful and updated. Singer Dan Kerzwick is screaming his lungs out on about half the tracks. At times his voice can be compared to singers from Hard Core bands and Phil Anselmo, which is a downside in my book. Personally I prefer the more controlled and mellow singing style exemplified beautifully on Breathe Again, which is one of the albums top tracks with a great chord progression.

"Reason to Live" is a diversified record. The album opens with 5 up-tempo tunes and then the listener is totally caught by surprise. Next track The Mill Wheel is an acoustic song, which proves that Dan Kerzwick really is capable of singing. Drummer Minnesota Pete is laying a perfect beat for the mellow The Mill Wheel and it is the closest you get to a Sixty Watt Shaman campfire song.

Overall the individual songs have several moods and sound collages. The title track understates that with varied tempo and many different chord structures. Most tracks are guitar riffs based like the album's most outstanding track Long Hard Road. This song really hits hard with some great wah-wah playing and a tough groovy mid tempo beat.

Sixty Watt Shaman consist of competent musicians. However, singer Dan Kerzwick's vocals are too Hard Core in my opinion. Some tracks simply get worse with the screaming vocal. Even though the album is diversified not all tracks on "Reason To Live" have same high standard. Some tracks are too ordinary like One Good Leg. The album ends with a prolonged 9 minute Jam session.

If you are a fan of either Corrosion of Conformity or Black Label Society you should give Sixty Watt Shaman a listen. Personally I would prefer either C.O.C or Zakk's band but keep in mind that I don't listen to this style that often.

Written by Michael
Wednesday, November 13, 2002
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Ratings

Michael: 5.5/10

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Review by Michael
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Released by
Spitfire Records - 2002

Tracklisting
01 - Nomad
02 - Reason To Live
03 - Blind By Morning
04 - Horse you Rode in On
05 - Our Name is War
06 - The Mill Wheel
07 - Long Hard Road
08 - The Evil behavior of ordinary people
09 - My Ruin
10 - Breathe Again
11 - One Good Leg
12 - All My Love
13 - Distance
14 - When The Morning Comes
15 - When I'm Alone
16 - All things Come To Pass


Supplied by Spitfire Records


Style
Full blown Heavy Rock ´N´ Roll

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666 - Unrated

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