|  Comments:
When you think of a “supervillain,” you think of someone
with a dark side, someone who is brilliant or otherwise powerful,
yet tainted. New York based metal band Supervillain’s music
can be described as such as well: brilliant, powerful, yet with
a dark side. This isn’t polished, pretty-boy music. It’s
metal that you eat raw meat to.
Supervillain
has recently sprung a new CD on the masses, called Earthquake Machine.
The meaning here can be taken a few ways, but the overall theme
is that Supervillain’s music will make the earth tremble and
quake.
Earthquake
Machine erupts with “Show ’Em All,” an aggressive,
grinding song with a catchy guitar groove and major attitude. The
chorus, with vocalist Morgan Adams’ layered vocals yelling
on one level and screaming on another, makes you want to bellow
along. As you’ll find out as you go through the album, Supervillain
is a guitar-driven band, with crisp, fast solos and a propensity
to make a lot of noise.
The
noisy aspect comes into play during track 2, “Nevermore.”
They have the uncanny ability to make it sound like there is more
going on than there really is. Here, the guitar leads the vocals
along, almost serving as backing vocals in parts of the song. It’s
a strange yet effective approach, and you’ll find it a few
times on the CD. Guitarists Mike Mirabella and Blue Wilding are
an adept duo, playing off each other like they’ve been doing
this together for 20 years.
By
the time you get to “You Ain’t Got a Prayer,”
you’ll figure out that no ballads, no pop songs, no crooning
is going to happen on this CD. Singer Adams has been at times compared
to Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell. This is a fair description
if you are talking “Full On Kevin’s Mom” or “Big
Dumb Sex” Soundgarden, but not the popular “Black Hole
Sun” Soundgarden. Adams has a throaty-edge to his voice that
will remind some of The Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli, as well.
Adams tones down his volume on this song, and truly sings in parts,
offering a side to his vocals the band would do well to expand on
next time around, if only to show Supervillain isn’t a one-sided
coin.
The
best song on this CD is called “Drowning.” While the
other songs have blasted at you from the onset, this song has a
simple, soft melody, obviously building towards something darker.
This song has the most varied composition on the CD, and Adams vocals
are hypnotically droning. This has sort of a Black Sabbath groove
to it, and you could almost hear Ozzy wanting to sing this one.
You will have to be impressed by the guitar solos again as well.
The rhythm section of drummer Louie Gasparro and bassist J. Nicholas
perfectly steer this dirge along. This is exactly the kind of song
Supervillain shines on.
If
you have to search for a knock on the band, it might be that some
of their songs sound a little too similar, vocally. Not that AC/DC
hasn’t made a career out of doing the same thing, but you
can tell that Adams has a lot more to his voice than is being shared
at this time. Like in songs like “Vicious Cycle,” perhaps
the fastest song with the most earthquake-like drumming, the vocals
seem to be the least important element to the song. But again, Supervillain
isn’t here to lull you to sleep; they are here to give you
shaken-baby syndrome. And for that, Adams is the perfect voice.
Earthquake
Machine is an album full of promise, piled with vicious vocals
and is a slap in the face to all of the overproduced and antiseptic
schlock attempting to call itself “metal” today. Supervillain
is just visceral heavy metal, and it’s something you need
to hear. Head to WWW.MUSICREALMS.COM/SUPERVILLAIN
to pick up the CD and feel the earthquake for yourself. |
