Review of Widow - Midnight Strikes

Christ, so what the fuck is this? Dude, if you ain't a metalhead you might as well be dead! It's the metal inquisition!!! See you in hell my friend!!!! 80's retro. What is the fucking point? Look, I grew up with this shit, and there is a reason we moved on. Fuckin Hell. Back then shit sounded like this because that's all there was. Now we have real choices, so why in the fuck would I want to take a fucking walk down memory lane with a band that would have been an also-ran at THAT time? Retro is not really retro. Maybe it borrows from the past, but it infuses the best parts of what was with everything we have experienced since, creating something familiar yet fresh. Oh, but not for Widow. They are going to drag you kicking and screaming back to the early to mid eighties and just leave you there, stranded and hopeless, wishing there were some Duran Duran fans to beat up. But there are none. All the Wham fans died and became gay investment bankers. And God love 'em, at least they left that time behind. I can best explain this CD to you by saying that it's a bad Maiden cover band, the kind you would see playing at a kegger in some redneck's basement and end up going outside to drink and get the fuck away from. I can almost smell the bandannas and headbands. OK, to be fair, it's not like these guys can't play. There is talent enough here, to be sure. The drummer and bass player are pretty tight, and both rip off the best ideas from the old prethrash metal acts. The lead guitars are fluid, but fucking ever present. If the singer isn't singing you get a fucking earful of melodic, harmonized leads. Maybe you dig that stuff. I dig that stuff - in doses. But this is pretty constant. Why they bothered throwing in delineated solos I can't say. Maybe they were afraid you didn't understand how godlike their skills are. Whatever: it gets old. The singer is...man... so 80's it almost makes you cringe. He sings clean most of the time, with lots of double tracked and Sweet-ish harmonies, but the voice lacks balls. Perhaps for that reason the band recorded someone trying to do hardcore screams now and then. And boy, does it FIT!! Hell yeah!!!! Just in case anyone forgot that these guys are our CONTEMPORARIES, dudes. It's funny shit. The production is pure 80's as well. Again, maybe that's your thing, but I was always fucking happy that studios became more metal friendly through the years, This stuff would sound better coming from my old Fisher Boom box than your CD player. But it's clear and you can usually hear everything...sometimes everything becomes a big mess, but only for a few moments. It's sad when your movie sound clips sound richer than your band, dudes. And then there is the songwriting. All the other transgressions would be offset by the energy and talent of this band had they been able to write songs that hooked you the way the bands they ape did. Unfortunately, not one song stood out, not one song insinuated itself in my head and wouldn't leave. When the band wasn't playing I remembered them through the sounds of Accept, Saxon, Lizzy Borden, even. But never the band itself. As I said above, they would not even have made it on the cover of my PeeChee in '83. Bottom Line: if you just HAVE to get some 80's style music in your collection... fucking find Killers by Iron Maiden, Power and the Glory by Saxon, Fire Down Under by Riot. These bands did it for real and not as some post Spinal Tap effigy bullshit. The verve simply doesn't overcome the apathy I feel for this record. Will I listen to it again? Fu-hucking NO. Dudes.

Release Details

Widow

Midnight Strikes

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