Zeitgeist Reviews -THE FORRESTERS, TONY WINN, BROWN SOX, TALISMA, DAMAGEPLAN

THE FORRESTERS

Skin Deep

TONY WINN

Tony Winn

TALISMA

Talisma

BROWN SOX

DAMAGEPLAN

TONY WINN - Satan's Zoo

Tony Winn has been working solo, on and off, since 1991, although this appears to be only his 3rd solo release (plus one live CD). Whereas the previous releases were pure solo efforts with Tony accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, this release takes the folk format and spices it up with a series of collaborations with Dave Weston and his jam band The Urban Spacemen.

Tony seems to have a skewed, humorous take on life, although this CD tackles some fairly heavy ideas. This ensures that the music stands up to repeated listening as there's always something worth listening out for, a turn of phrase you missed first time round. The lovelorn "Shadows In The Night" and the wordy, worthy, "Welcome To Wonderland".

There are some unusual and interesting arrangements, with bodhran, violin and concertina all making an appearance. Influenced, as he is, by Tom Waits, Bob Dylan and Loudon Wainwright (yah!), Tony adds in his own slanted viewpoint to make an always engaging release.

http://www.tony.winn.btinternet.co.uk

TALISMA - Corpus

Talisma are an instrumental progressive Rock trio from the Montreal region of Canada, formed way back in 1993 by multi-instrumentalist Donald Fleurent. Their first demo, entitled 1994, received rave reviews but it was another 5 years before their second demo, a jazz augmented release. However, due to the eternal musical differences the band officially split up the following year.

However, it was not long before a new Talisma was born with addition of guitarist Martin Vanier and drummer Mark Di Claudio. This brought about their debut release "Corpus", a completely instrumental album save for two tracks that offer scat style female vocals, which covers the gamut of progressive styles incorporating rock, jazz, latin, classical and world influences.

There are some highlights, the female enhanced "Samba Tapping" female free "Mister Twitts", with the latter being particularly good, taking an early Santana vibe and filtering it through a fusion filter. There are nods to some contemporary bands like the Flower Kings, but theirs is a fairly unique take these days. Full on art rock, replete with the pretensions that, when properly utilised, make for fascinating listening.

http://www.unicornrecords.com/talisma.html

BROWN SOX - Music To Quilt By

New Orleans, Louisiana based Brown Sox describe themselves as "Altermetarocadelic", which makes little sense as they are a fairly conventional post grunge outfit nodding at all the usual influences - Soundgarden, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Alice In Chains, Mr. Bungle, Metallica, Slayer etc, but with enough twists to ensure boredom is not an option.

But that is not to dismiss them as they are very good at what they do. Plenty of throbbing guitars, melodic hooks, combination vocals (or as they prefer to call it 'larynx sound exhibitor'), missing it up between Layne Staley and Glen Benton in equal measures.

They hark back to the power rock days of Cream and IronButterfly, mixing it thtough a post grunge blender to come up with a very dynamic sound. There's a nod to sludge, a soupcon of psychedelia and a few pop hooks. Which means things are never dull. The closest predecessor that springs to mind is "Lifetime" era Rollins Band. Well worth investigating.

http://www.brownsox.com

DAMAGEPLAN - New Found Power

Finally, after what seems like years of infighting and name-calling, the musical half of Pantera finally get round to releasing their new CD. Dimebag and Vinnie have been kept on by their former employers at Elektra and brought in former tattoo artist Bob Zilla on bass and former Halford guitarist Patrick Lachman to take the place of the irreplaceable Phil Anselmo.

It was always going to be impossible for the brothers to live up to the legacy that Pantera left behind, as one of the most influential metal acts of all time, and so it proves. For while Anselmo distances himself from his past by immersing himself in the black metal aberration of Superjoint Ritual, Dimebag and Vinnie have walked the braver path, and looked their legacy right in the eye.

The accusations have been flying around claiming that this is derivative, which misses the point. These guys wrote the music in Pantera. That sound was their sound. The mistake they seem to have made in many eyes is not changing. It's a risky step, and by using a new band name, they have tried to cover themselves.

The album starts off in "Trendkill" fashion with "Wake Up" and "Breathing New Life" redolent of that album. However, come the title track, they lyrically take on their past with a cry of 'Cleansing yourself of the past, learn from mistakes and move on, conquering new ground at last, unite and become twice as strong'. Brave words.

They do attempt some progression with "Pride" being the best example, where they try and weld melody to the Pantera riff juggernaut, something, which also works well on "Reborn", where Zakk Wylde adds a Sabbath riff to great effect.

As with many albums, at 14 tracks, it's too long, and come track 10 they, and the listener, start to flag. Some judicious trimming could have lifted this from the good to the great. In addition, Pat Lachman needs to find a voice of his own. Don't get me wrong, he does a good job, but with hints of Anselmo, Cornell and Staley showing through too often, you can tell it's his first singing gig.

If "New Found Power" had come from any other source, it would be hailed as an outstanding release, there was a lot of pressure on them to deliver, and this doesn't quite make it. However, it runs rings around Superjoint Ritual, something which I'm sure the brothers will be happy to hear.