Rob Rock - Rage Of Creation

Reunion time for Roy and two of his old Driver buddies! But they play it heavier this time...

Release date: 26/07/00 - Ref: JVC/Victor VICP-61101

Band
Rob Rock : vocals
Roy Z : guitars, bass, keyboards
Reynold "Butch" Carlson : drums

Guests
Gregory Analla : backing vocals
Ray Burke : bass on All I need, In the night and Never too late
Jake E. Lee : guitar on All I need and Media machine
Special thanks to Chris Leibundgut for playing bass guitar during pre-production

Produced by Roy Z
Engineered and mixed by Roy Z and Joe Floyd
Drum tracks recorded at American Studios
Pre-production at Bill's Place Studios
Mastered by Eddy Schreyer at Oasis Mastering
Executive producers : Rob Rock and Roy Z

Review

Oh yes. After sweeping out the Metal World Series three years in a row - and helping Bruce D. get his old job back - Z lurks once again in Metal territory. Joined by his old Driver pals Rob Rock (vocals) and Butch Carlson (drums), Roy is true to his one-man army style : guitar, bass, keyboards, writer, producer, engineer, etc. Bo knows football, but so does Roy, so there. A couple of familiar guests also show up : Ray Burke (Life After Death, bass), Jake E. Lee (guitar) and Gregg Analla perfecting his "scream your head off on the chorus, kid" routine. So, does this battle-hardened squad deliver ?

To be honest, I'm not a Rob Rock fan : I know he has many and I won't be missed. His style is fine and there are much worse singers out there, but his lyrics really do nothing for me. No offense but for what it's worth, we seem to be on different sides of the spiritual fence. Yeah yeah yeah, Slayer have corrupted my immortal soul, whatever. 'nuff said : I'm sure you'll enjoy the vocals, but I'll try to focus on the tunes, OK?

Appropriately named In the beginning, the intro sounds like something Queen could have written at the peak of their glory : slow, triumphant layered guitar harmonies. I'm sure you see what I'm referring to. Actually, that's not the first time I've wondered if Roy is a closet Brian May fan, so I'll have to clear this up !

After this short intro, we dive straight into The sun will rise again, which is as German Melodic Speed Metal as it gets. Think Hammerfall or Gamma Ray here. Those who hoped a come back to some sort of 80's Hair Metal can @#$* off, and those who feared it can start headbanging NOW. This is state of the art stuff, as anthemic as anything out of the Ruhr in the last few years. Ze sun vill rise again, ja ! Definitely the see-you-at-the-end speeder required to open any serious Metal album.

Busy hands are happy hands, so the band hardly catch their breath before delivering One way out, THE monster tune on Rage of creation. Once again, this is 100MPH material, with Z giving the best Accept impersonation I've heard in some time. And did you notice the chorus banshee ? Nice to hear you can still do the Scream, Gregg ;-) What will really floor you is of course Roy's solo, one of his best ever. Maybe the best : ain't heard nuthin' that fast on Chemical Wedding, no sir ! But not just fast, fucking wicked (excuse my french). And when Rob pops up again at the end of the solo, screaming like he's found good ole Mephisto eating popcorn in his living-room... Wow, awesome !

Time to slow things down a bit, but don't you sinners expect any lighter punishment, 'coz Judgement day has come. For the occasion, Z picks up the Molossian and starts banging away one of those ten-ton hammer rhythms he's loved for. All of you Nu-Metal kids out there : repent and ask for forgiveness, because this is the shit. Heavy and melodic. Open your eyes and see the light !

OK, I'm getting warmed up, time to lash out. Steve Harris, if you insist on boring us with bass intros, at least do it right. Listen to Streets of madness and learn : slow crescendo bass intro exploding into an epic gallop guitar riff. This is what we should have gotten on Brave new world and of course didn't. Pfff. Anyway, this is Powerslave-quality Heavy Metal and of course one of the highlights of this album. Both chorus and verse riffs are fantastic and the solo is yet another beauty. Tongue firmly in cheek, the song ends with Maiden's famous ta-ta-ta-ta ta-ta-ta-ta drum fill. Don't let anyone tell you this is a coincidence.

The next one, Eagle, just doesn't add up, but how could it ? I must say I'm a bit puzzled, because this song is credited to ABBA. Not being familiar at all with ABBA's back catalogue, I have to assume that we're talking about this disaster of a band that haunted the airwaves a couple of centuries ago. I can only dreadfully imagine what the original was like, but the cover definitely is of these cheesy 80s tunes some of you love so much (yeah, you!). Hair factor : 90% on my scale. Still, I enjoyed the ending solo...

I've never been into ballads at all, so although Beautiful lady is quite a competent one, complete with acoustic guitars and wailing vocals, it doesn't really pierce my black heart. This is a Japan-only bonus song, by the way. Not that I'm implying that only Japanese fans will enjoy it, but... ;-)

If the first four numbers were 90s Euro-scorchers all the way, the next four are much more faithful to the 80s U.S. heritage : fun up-tempo rockers, complete with arena-friendly choruses and fretboard orgies. Jake E. Lee guests on two songs, for Christ's sake ! Just the right amount of cheese, if you catch my drift. This definitely reminded me early Ozzy and Queensryche, but I'm sure plenty of other names could come to mind. Thrash kid that I am (and proud of it too!), I've never been a great fan of the genre on display here, but All I need, Media machine, In the night and Never too late are on the Metal side, not on the hairy side. If I enjoyed this little trip down Memory Lane, so will you. Of course, if you're into metallized AOR, you will LOVE this :-)

Last tune of this CD, Forever starts as a generic power ballad, but quickly turns into a very nice Metal number, reminiscent of Malmsteen's quieter moments. Ending with a final blazing Z appearance, this song fittingly closes the proceedings.

In summary, Rage of creation has one foot firmly planted in the past glory of 80s Metal and the other in the ferocity of 90s Speed Metal. The guys in the band have been in the business for a while, and their performance is as tight as you'd expect it to be. The production is of course top-notch, so no worries here. Rob Rock/Impelliteri fans will of course love this stuff, but all open-minded amateurs of Traditional Metal ought to check it out.

Not only for the Z completist, then.

Julien