F5
A Drug For All Seasons
6.3
F5 is bassist David Ellefson’s first project since his acrimonious split with long time Megadeth partner Dave Mustaine. I never bothered to delve completely through the nasty details of the Ellefson/Mustaine feud, but from what I saw, including reading about Mustaine’s attitude that Ellefson was little more than a hired hand, I hoped that Junior would move on to a project capable of extending a sonic middle finger in Mustaine’s direction. F5 is not that project. Rather than regrouping and working in a direction consistent with his metal roots, Ellefson’s new band is focused on radio friendly hard rock. There is a thing wrong with branching out, and truth be told, F5 have the potential to “move a lot of units” of A Drug For All Seasons, but the band seems far more likely to appeal to a new set of listeners, rather than metal fans for whom Megadeth is as commercial as they like to venture.
F5 (“You sank my battleship!”) plays commercially viable hard rock with some nu-metal elements, and will appeal to fans of Disturbed and Sevendust. Loaded with bouncy crunch and monster hooks, A Drug For All Seasons will fit right in on your local FM outlet for heavy music. While this sound is too antiseptic for my tastes, F5 do have their moments. The vocal melody of “Bleeding” is undeniably catchy, and “Dying on the Vine” infuses some Stone Temple Pilots styled groove. “Defacing”, one of the heaviest tracks, has a verse that is reminiscent of a Nine Inch Nails song, but is stopped flat by an entirely vanilla, poppy chorus. Commercial appeal in and of itself is no valid reason to criticize music, and I can appreciate radio fare, but I prefer to keep my heavy music heavy. So to me, the cover of Edie Brickell & New Bohemians’ “What I Am” simply takes a good song and ruins it with the jumpdafuckup bravado of the chorus arrangement. Fans of the genre will probably eat this album up, but chances are, few of those fans are among the MetalReview readership. If you’re like me, you’ll regard F5 as a solid entry to a typically bland and vapid style. It’s better than much of what is heard on the radio, but not interesting enough to seek out on your own.
