1118. The End Machine / Phase 2. 2021. 3.5/5

Back in the 1980’s, when hair metal was at its peak, US band Dokken had dominated sales and airwaves with albums such as Tooth and Nail, Under Lock and Key and Back for the Attack. While Don Dokken was lead vocalist, they had George Lynch on guitar, Jeff Pilson on bass and Mich Brown on drums, all of whom were also invested in the writing of the material. When the band broke up or went on hiatus or whatever you wish to term their split as being, Lynch and brown went on to form the band Lynch Mob who released two successful albums of their own. For Lynch Mob, they recruited a singer named Oni Logan, who for the second album was replaced by Robert Mason. For all of those years between 1989 and 2018 there were several reunions and disassembling of line ups of both Dokken and Lynch Mob, with varying degrees of success.In 2019, the three band members of Dokken whose surname was not Dokken – ie, Lynch, Pilson and Brown – and three members of Lynch Mob – ie, Lynch and Brown, along with Mason – formed a new band called The End Machine. They released their debut album with the eponymous title in 2019, which received good reviews. When you listen to that album, while the songs are fine and well written, it is only natural to compare them to that bygone era, to subject them to a comparison to the great Dokken and Lynch Mob albums of the past. And as far as that debut album went, it had no semblance of anything from that era. It is a good album but to be fair nothing really stands out as amazing on it.

Here on Phase2, Mick Brown has moved into retirement and has been replaced on drums by his brother Steve, keeping everything nicely in house for The End Machine. And there is an immediately noticeable difference to the songs on Phase2 than there was on the debut album. There is that immediate sound of something Dokkeny going on. But don’t get me wrong, this isn’t Dokken and it isn’t Lynch Mob. Recreating a sound from those albums would be a one way ticket to disaster. It isn’t 1987 anymore, and no one wants to hear another The Final Countdown, for instance, do they? But, whereas the first album felt like it was trying to avoid any comparison to that long bygone age, Phase2 doesn’t appear to be doing that. The melodic hard rock sound that was a hallmark of those two bands is definitely here, not with the 80’s poppy vibe perhaps, but in a more mature form that befits the 30 odd years that these gentlemen have since those days of spandex and hairspray and the like.

As you can hear from the opening, Phase2 has a familiar sound to it without trying to recreate that era. From the very beginning it is great to hear the tight combination of Brown and Pilson in the rhythm section, giving Lynch’s guitar the base to make his magic happen, while the vocals from Mason jump straight in and grab you. This is followed up on “We Walk Alone”, another great track where Mason and Pilson’s vocals strike a great anthemic chord to get the listener involved.
“Dark Divide” is perhaps the best example of the mature sound of the past greatness of the band’s previous incarnations. A free-flowing guitar and bass riff held in check by a perfect rolling beat and wonderful vocal melodies from Mason and Pilson. It has a terrific groove and has all of the hallmarks and talents that this foursome bring to the table. There are plenty of what I call ‘comfort songs’ on this album, and what I mean by that is that the songs themselves aren’t frenetic or super guitar driven or have technical drum or bass patterns throughout. They are songs that sit into a comfortable groove, one where you nod your head along in time rather than thrashing hard or crooning in a balladeer way. “Plastic Heroes”, “Shine Your Light”, “Born of Fire” and especially the closing track “Destiny” do this in a most effective way. There is no high speed tempo in these tracks, but they just oooooze along, lulling you in with Mason’s wonderful vocals and the smooth rhythm that folds around everything.
On the other hand there is the ballad that all bands in this style of genre MUST produce for every album, and in this instance it is “Scars”. This actually comes closest to reminding me of a Dokken song, one of their most famous power ballads “Heaven Sent”. This has a very similar tone to that song. This isn’t a poor song but its very makeup makes me want to reach for the skip button immediately.
Of course, then you have a song like “Crack the Sky”, which showcases the style that George Lynch contributes, upping the tempo and energy in Mason’s vocals, and with Lynch’s guitar tricks punctuating throughout the song.

I came across The End Machine completely by accident, actually learning about it on an interview with Jeff Pilson on a podcast where they spoke of, amongst other things, about the imminent release of this album. So I looked it up and checked it out, as well as its predecessor. And while I enjoyed the first album, this is the one that I actually found I had more in common with. It grabbed my attention in a way the debut album did not, and my belief is that it has more to do with the greater influence of their melodic roots of metal than anything else.

Phase2 probably isn’t modern enough to catch the ear of the kids today, but for those of us old enough to remember the heady days of hair metal through the 1980’s, even though this ISN’T that, it is a much more mature version of that, you will feel comfort enough in the song structure and melodic harmony tones of this album.
I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this album. It’s always a difficult thing to find out about a new band or release and come into it with any pre-conceived ideas about how it should sound and what you expect it to be like. With so much music out there in the world now, the ability to come up with something that will appeal to old fans and yet not be just a rehash or copy of the music that they know you for is a pretty difficult balancing act. What I eventually loved most about this album was the fact that it didn’t try to be anything that it wasn’t. It is an album by 55-65 year old guys whose experience allows them to fall comfortably into the music they have written, and perform it so well that you can’t help but like it. It is anything but a hard rock album, but it has songs that fit that profile. It is not an easy listening album, but it has moments that drift into comfort listening. More than anything else, it sounds great, and each of the members of the band do their job wonderfully well, and that makes it great to listen to.

Rating: "We walk alone". 3.5/5

1117. Sunbomb / Evil and Divine. 2021. 4/5

It is hard to go past a collaboration between two artists well known throughout the industry, but on slightly different parts of the music spectrum. Tracii Guns is best known for his work with his band L.A. Guns, a part of the LA hair metal scene of the late 80’s and early 90’s in particular, as well as Brides of Destruction with Nikki Sixx in the early 2000’s. Michael Sweet also emerged in the mid to late 1980’s as the guitarist and front man for the Christian metal band Stryper, and has also sung for mega band Boston and been in other projects such as with George Lynch.Now though both of the bands that these two are best known for hail from the same era of music and could rightly claim to be well entrenched in that 80’s hard rock and hair metal scene, and that their music genre would be in a similar category, they still seem like unlikely music partners. Michael Sweet is a Christian, and the majority of his music has been Christian related, at least lyrically, while Tracii Guns... is not... Christian, and the majority of his music lyrically would seem to have been the opposite of that... well, the tongue in cheek girl meets boy kinda lyric stuff. So on the face of it, this seems like a strange collaboration.

From all reports, Guns and Sweet bumped into each other a few years ago, and got on well, becoming friends of a sort. Guns apparently tried to get a co-tour happening with LA guns and Stryper a couple of years ago, but by all accounts the record companies didn’t feel it was a good match. Go figure. So we come to Tracii deciding to write a new album, a new project, and he decided, in his own words, to do an album like what he was listening to as a teenager, and that had been closer to doom metal than what he played in LA Guns particularly. And so he did. It was an experiment, but one he was happy with. Guns wrote all the music, and when it came time to think of a vocalist, he came to Michael Sweet. It wasn’t such a stretch as you might imagine, as there is no doubt that Sweet’s writing and playing has been getting progressively heavier over the last few Stryper albums, as well as the two albums he had collaborated on with George Lynch. So musically, we have Tracii Guns writing doom metal songs, sung on by the high range melodic vocals of Michael Sweet in what is described in some quarters as a modern take on doom metal. Melodic doom metal? Well, probably not, but that’s where it heads, so it’s best to get your head around that from the start.
Tracii Guns is quoted as saying, “Sunbomb was an idea, then an experiment. When I heard the first vocal completed I was blown away by Michael’s voice. It’s an exciting album!”
Michael Sweet is quoted, “Hard to believe that I met Tracii for the first time just a few years ago. We hit it off right away and we obviously share the same love for metal. Traci sent me a song and I loved the vibe and then he eventually asked me to sing on the entire album. What I love about it is it’s definitely different not only for me, but for Tracii as well. I think fans will love this album”.

This is an album that will divide fans and critics alike, and sometimes that can be a good thing because it means that a band is pushing the boundaries of what people think of those musicians involved – and of course sometimes it isn’t a good thing. Evil and Divine is definitely heavier, darker, and more of a more modern metal sound than most fans will expect. There’s no doubt that, for both of the main artists here, the music is much heavier than either has ever produced before in their long and storied careers. But it is different, and it does take some getting used to. No happy go lucky praising of the Lord of chatting up sleazy rock chicks on this album, this is the real metal deal. But the style is variant depending on which song you are listening to, and that can be challenging. Sweet’s vocals come at you in a much different fashion than you will be used to. He spends a lot of top in his high register with trademark high pitched screams but also some with some real venom and force behind them that are not his typical way. At time he is almost raging, really getting into the songs with gusto, and again this takes some getting used to.
On the other side, Tracii really digs deep into his past love of doom metal, and not only pulls it off in a traditional way but also gives it a modern texture that overall works superbly. When he plays songs in that old time doom metal time signature, being kept in check with the slow tempo drums, you can almost imagine early Sabbath, Candlemass, Witchfinder General and Type O Negative playing on the album.

And honestly, the more you listen to the album, the better it gets, mainly because you begin to get used to what Tracii was trying to create with this album. In general it is the faster paced songs that sound best and will probably survive inquiry the longest because they keep the momentum up and drive the album along. “Life”, the opening track of the album, is fast paced with a great guitar riff and vocals, and an excellent solo from Tracii. “Better End” and “Born to Win” are in a similar category to these. And “No Tomorrows” also keeps the vibe up. There are other fairly obvious influences here, none more so than the slower track “Been Said and Done”, that has a bassline straight out of an Alice in Chains album, gutteral and dominating the track.
Some of it doesn’t quite work the way it probably should. In “Worlds Gone Wrong” it feels to me that Sweet’s vocals don’t fit the song the way it is written, and that as one of several true doom metal tracks on the album, it isn’t quite as good or well done as others. On the other hand, take a listen to the second song on the album, “Take Me Away”. This is the perfect example of the doom obsession Tracii has tried to create, and I think it is a ripper. The timing and tempo of the track is perfect, and Tracii has beautifully recreated his own version of that Iommi-like sound on his guitar, from the main riff and through into the solo. I think this song is a work of art.

In all of the reviews that I have read of this album, all of them have been ambivalent over almost everything on it. All seem to be able to pick out one or two songs that they can stomach, and then cast aside the rest as too different for their tastes. And it doesn’t surprise me, because it took me quite a long time to get it myself. There is a real range and mixture of sounds on Evil and Divine. Every song has a different feel and energy, and that takes some getting used to. If you just put this album on and listened to it two or three times, and then gave up on it, then you would probably feel the same way as these reviewers do.

But me? I had it on at work over a four-week period with several other albums on the same playlist that I was listening to, and gave it a lot of time, with albums of a different sound in order to gain some context. And then I finally put it on at home and everything magically fell into place. I found what I loved about the album, and what I didn’t.
And – I really do enjoy it. Because the band is and sounds great. Adam Hamilton on drums and Mitch Davis on bass are terrific, not just making up the numbers but really contributing, especially on the slower and moodier tracks. Tracii’s guitar sound is perfect for the album, not only in his rhythm riffs but also his classic metal solos. And Michael’s vocals are still the equal of anyone in the music business, and here he not only shows us what we know he can do, he also has some surprises. It is a fantastic compilation.

Will this be a one-off? I hope not, because if this is what this group can produce in a covid year of lockdown and isolation, imagine what they could do in a year of some semblance of returned normality!

Rating: "Is the future closer than the end". 4/5