The Last Act
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
6
Some styles of music never seem to age. Heavy metal isn't one of them. It gets old. It's fingers get calloused and raw. It unbuckles it's pants and gets lung cancer. With the exception of a few bands, the style as a whole has sort of remained frozen into a time of bullet belts, tight pants, and a huge arena sound. To these mighty dinosaurs, every note of every solo deserves individual attention. Maybe even individual tears if you're busy exploring the more heavy and emotional styles of some of the late 70's and 80's acts. We've all been forced next to one at some sort of concert, feeling awkward as heavy metal makes homoerotic jokes, yet, delivers a contradictory message by fake grabbing a girl's ass. They have a beer, a job, and probably a dog. Their shoes still fit, even if their pants no longer do. To heavy metal, to that man, they're living a dream. But to everyone else, however, they're stuck in some sort of time vortex of the likes that we could never understand. The Last Act are simply a band of transient and dedicated heavy metal madmen, too heavy to be played in the automobile factories, yet too heartfelt for the youth of today.
With riffs that are a cross between Iron Maiden and Motley Crue, The Last Act plays a really bland and faceless style of heavy metal, but at least they play it well. Because the vocals are profoundly altered by a vocorder, it's hard to tell how skilled the singer Colin Murphy actually is. I suppose it doesn't really matter, as his vocals fit the music rather well and remain on key. They're not without fault though, like on "Full Volumage", where there are obnoxious and garbled backup vocals colliding with lead vocals that are far to high, and a fairly random and misplaced guitar lead throughout the entire song. I actually scoffed when I heard it, honestly. No matter how talented of a guitar player they have, there comes a time where he needs to stop playing. The following track, "Vision", has far more of a late 70's sound to it - something I'd personally like to hear them stick to. Unfortunately, they feel the need to insert some sort of ambient part two minutes in, complete with a woman speaking softly. Really unnecessary. The music begins to sound a little cluttered on the ballad, "Slave to the Nerve", where the lead guitar crowds out a palm muted rhythm guitar part - but it's nothing that takes too much away from the song.
Let me give it to you straight. It's cheesy. It's cheesy and outdated, but that doesn't mean it can't be decent, or even good. The more they drift from their stereotypical rock delivery, the better they are, like on the last track, "Struggle", which could draw comparisons to some of the more ridiculous Black Sabbath ballads.
The production is not bad, overall, but still needs a little polishing. During some of the tunes you'll hear a sort of "thwak" bass sound that I had to rewind to make sure I didn't imagine. I'm not entirely sure what the purpose is, but i do know that sound is completely disruptive. The levels are good, though, and sort of capture the essence of the era of heavy metal that the band is trying to emulate.
I have no doubt in my mind that The Last Act firmly believe in what they're doing - and why shouldn't they? It's not bad at all. Although dated, there's going to be some guy in a torn jean jacket that absolutely adores No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. But with a 57 minute running time, I'd be impressed to see that same man adore it the entire way through. Bottom line: this isn't anything you haven't heard before, and if it is, you desperately need to get out more.
