KYRBGRINDER - review added 15th September 2010
Album Review: Cold War Technology (2010)
For fans of: Alt Metal... and Threshold
Kyrbgrinder is the baby of Johanne James, best known as the drummer of prog-legends Threshold. Here, however, he goes down the Don Henley route and handles lead vocals alongside all the skin smashing. Amazingly he does both of them at the same time live too. Such is the quality of his drumming throughout it's a surprise he finds time to breathe, never mind sing as well as he does.
Joining Johanne to complete the Kyrbgrinder trio are new boy Tom Caris on guitars and Alberto 'Albi' Flaibani on bass.
"Cold War Technology" is the band's second album, following their 2007 debut "Defiance" on metal label Mausoleum Records. Where Defiance was the product of a band trying to find its sound, with numerous forays down experimental roads, Cold War Technology is much more defined and self-assured. This is an album from a band who now know who they are and where they are going.
The sound is still 'crossover' in the extreme, but there is a new found maturity underpinning the music. Johanne and the boys tip their hats toward the funky hard rock of Living Colour, the characterful metal of Disturbed, the lyrics and anger of Green Day, the complex progressions of Threshold (well, they had to be in their somewhere) and more. The result is staggeringly good.
Johanne's voice is far too good for a drummer... and his drumming is way too good for anyone. The string section backs him up with bags of power and loads of interesting hooks and riffs. These guys don't just play straight ahead chords. There are all sorts of unexpected shimmies and turns in the music, and it really does a fabulous job of keeping the album fresh from start to finish.
Best tracks? All of them really. The album is more about the skill of the musicianship and fluidity of movement from song to song - and the sheer jaw-dropping scale of it all - but the speedy 'I Wish I Could', the thumping 'Through These Eyes', the brilliant cover of Nirvana's 'Heart Shaped Box', the grinding 'The Resistance', and the stonking final track 'Where Do We Go From Here' all stand out.
Yep, this is a top release. What else can I say? Buy it!
Check out... All of it.
Track List:
01. Cynical World
02. Don't Be So Cold
03. People of the Free World (Paranoid American)
04. I Wish I Could
05. Get Away
06. Through These Eyes
07. My Heart Bleeds
08. Make Me A Believer
09. Heart Shaped Box
10. The Resistance
11. Face the Change
12. Don't Stand in My Way (Waging War)
13. Cold War Technology (Instrumental)
14. Where Do We Go From Here
Artist's website(s): Kyrbgrinder | MySpace | Facebook
