WHEN SUMMER'S GONE - review added 4th January 2010
Album Review: December (2009)
For fans of: Alt Metal... and mixin' it up
When Summer's Gone is a duo from New Castle in the north-eastern U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The band is Dave Graziani on lead vocals, guitars and piano, plus Chris Lepri on bass and drums. I'm not quite sure how that would work live but, hey, we're only looking at the album! Dave is the band's principal writer/composer.
The guys met in grade school and started making music together in their late teens. That was several years ago, and it was only in 2008 that they got together to form the band.
December is their first album. they list influences as diverse as Springsteen, Alice in Chains, Elton John, In Flames, Motley Crue, The Misfits, The Temptations, Slipknot, Huey Lewis And The News and more. Listening to the album, it's easy to hear why.
The first track, 'Funeral for a friend' is an acoustic song with a sad underbelly. There are references to a friend's suicide in the album so the occasional downbeat sound is hardly a surprise. What is a surprise is what happens on track 2. Just listening to the opening song you'd assume the album was going to be an introspective journey through the emotions of loss and redemption, but it certainly doesn't end up that way. From track 2 onwards the album goes electric and becomes considerably heavier.
There are moments of grunge, segments of straight-ahead hard rock, and even times when When Summer's Gone goes all heavy metal. The majority of the songs cover the middle ground quality-wise. There is little of exception on December. Saying that, it's an easy album to listen to and there's rarely if ever a need to skip tracks. '10/6' is by far and away the best track for my tastes, purely because it's got a monstrously heavy edge that's missing in many of the other songs.
December is a solid and likeable album, but it isn't hugely inspiring. The guys can be proud of what they've achieved, even if it perhaps doesn't appeal to me as much as I would have liked it to.
Check out... '10/6'. More like this please!
Track List:
1. Funeral for a friend
2. Welcome Home
3. Resolution in D
4. Hangover
5. Ocean Boulevard
6. Embers
7. 10/6
8. Echoes
Artist's website(s): MySpace
