Jack Frost
Out In The Cold
5.2
Seven Witches. Savatage. Metallium. The Bronx Casket Co. This is just a sampling from the resume of guitarist Jack Frost. After years of working with these bands, he finally released what could be called a solo effort in 2003, and seems to find himself on at least one new release a year in one form or another. Either all that work is taking its toll on him, or he just needs a band in order to do well, because Out in the Cold is more than a bit of a dud.
Frost sought out the help of several friends for this recording, including bassist Joey Vera (Armored Saint), drummer Patrick Johansson (Yngwie Malmsteen), and vocalists Neil Turbin (ex-Anthrax), Ted Polly (ex-Danger Danger, among others), Jeff Martin (Racer X), Terry Ilous (XYZ) and journeyman Dale Toth. He probably should have sought out additional help in songwriting, too. The majority of the material here sounds either recycled or dated – or both. The title track, with Ilous on vocals, sounds like an 80s big-hair number, while “Peter and Me”, featuring Toth, sounds like it could have been on a Black Crowes record. To be fair, Turbin brings some true metal power to “Crucifixation” and Polley does a decent job on opener “Wasting Your Luv” (although he tanks it on closer “Head First”), but the highlights are few and far between. Even though Martin brings a Halford-esque shriek to “Covered in Blood”, it gets tiresome quickly, and he should have opted out of--and advised Frost to do the same --the cover of Foreigner’s “Cold As Ice”. But, Frost does love his cover songs, taking over vocal duties for an “I’m sure it sounded like a good idea at the time” rendition of .38 Special’s “Hold On Loosely”, and bringing Polly back for a take on April Wine’s “Sign of the Gypsy Queen”, which one can’t help but chuckle at.
Having recently watched the Seven Witches DVD, I can assure you that Jack Frost seems like a nice guy who loves what he does, as he smiles through all the commentary/documentary parts of the video, but this is just a poorly executed effort that relies too much on cover songs and B-list vocalists and ultimately comes up short, leaving many listeners - pardon the pun - Out in the Cold.
