By Monk
The history of rock music is littered with collaborations – some good, some bad, some completely ill-conceived (“Lou-tallica” anyone?) – and it has to be expected that sometimes one comes along which stops you in your tracks, draw a breath and ask yourself “what the feck is this… and how is it going to work?” Both the name of the band and the title of the debut (and possibly sole) album from this latest such conjoining of apparently disparate forces neatly sums things up: it’s like dropping a nuclear warhead into the heart of the rock ‘n’ roll solar system, drawing together two legendary musicians from seeming opposite ends of the spectrum – the “king of sleaze” in Tracii Guns and the epitome of all things squeaky clean, Michael Sweet…
Yes, the bad boy of the LA glam scene has teamed up with metal’s original Bible-bashing bumblebee to deliver an album that is… well… heavy, dirty, ambitious, bombastic – and as about far removed from what you would expect either of its proponents to produce in this or any other lifetime, in this or any alternate Überverse… Oh, and it’s rather on the feckin’ amazeballs side of the fence as well! Quite simply put, this is perhaps the most surprisingly brilliant pure classic metal album you are likely to hear this year… But then, maybe it shouldn’t be, given the pedigree of the two artists at its core, especially as Guns has never made any secret of his deep-rooted and lifelong affection for the doom sub-genre, and Sweet hasn’t quite been living up to his moniker in recent years, having been taking Stryper down an increasingly heavier and darker (more disillusioned?) route in recent years…
Guns lays heavy emphasis on his love of doom, and yes there are large elements of that affection present, most especially on the dense rumblings of the likes of ‘Take Me Away’: but, this reverence, while omnipresent, is not overpowering, which is part of the charm of the final product, as there is more than enough polish also employed to keep Mr Sheen busy for a month of Sundays. If anything, the overall effect is that which Ronnie James Dio applied to the Black Sabbath canon when he moved them out of the Ozzy-era drunkenness and into the light of the nascent power metal movement. You only have to look at the likes of ‘No Tomorrows’, the title track and the eloquent ‘Been Said And Done’ for prime examples of what I mean.
However, the most revelatory aspect of the album – and it should not really be so – is Sweet’s absolutely titanic vocal performance, which sees him easily transfuse the full breadth of his three-plus octave range, from the deepest end of his register to those massively impressive C# falsettos that never fail to send involuntary tingles down your spine, into a musical mien for which it is far more suited than most of the AOR-infused sticky-sweetness with which he has established his reputation over the past three decades or more. It perhaps would have been so easy for Sweet to “dial in” in his contributions, but instead he delivers them with genuine commitment, vivacity and passion.
‘Evil And Divine’ is an album that defies expectations: it is one which you would expect to fall at the first hurdle, given the disparity of its contributors, but joyously defies logic and reason to clear all the fences and lift the cup joyously above its head. It is a triumphant achievement, in every department.
- ‘Evil And Divine’ is released on 14 May. You can get your copy HERE.
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