Reviews roundup – David Michael Miller vs. AmonDuul II vs. Scream Maker vs. One Mile To Nowhere

Reviews roundup – David Michael Miller vs. AmonDuul II vs. Scream Maker vs. One Mile To Nowhere

DAVID MICHAEL MILLER
Poisons Sipped
self released

Now this is just great. Roots music as it should be. Now, David Michael Miller is a new name to me, but he’s been playing his dues over there in the American colonies, plying his trade with a variety of bands, including his current gig with Divine House Union.

But here he is solo, and in absolutely splendid form as he ranges across blues, soul and even a wee bit gospel.  The songs and arrangements are wonderful, with careful use of horns, assorted keybaords and some pedal steel.  All topped off with the very listenable voice of Mr Miller.

Some of the songs are classics in the making with the likes of ‘Hand Me Downs’ and ‘Memphis Belle’ amongst the best I’ve heard this year, and even if the slower tracks such as ‘Carolina Bound’ falter slightly, it’s a minor gripe in amongst the sheer quality of what’s on offer.

It may be his debut solo album, but based on this, he should have many more to come.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/davidmichaelmiller

AMON DUUL II
Duulirium
Cleopatra

The first new studio release in nearly 20 years sees founding members John Weinzierl (guitar), Chris Karrer (guitar, violin) and Renate Knaup (vocals) plus longtime members Lothar Meid (bass) and Daniel Fischelscher (drums) making an album that sounds exactly like you would expect an Amon Duul II album to sound like after a gap of nearly 20 years.

Which basically means if you want to hear lengthy tunes mixing up Krautrock, spacerock and drone, then this is the place to be. I know I do, so I was delighted to clap ears on the likes of ‘Du Kommst Ins Heim’ and ‘Standing In The Shadow’.  Musically, it’s top notch, and the vocals are just as rubbish as always, so it’s full steam ahead.

Granted, the closing ‘Back to the Rules/Walking to the Park’ could have been chopped in half, but it’s a small price to pay for a duuliriously enjoyable album.  Fans of the band who abhor the notion of the CD will also be delighted to learn that Cleopatra have started bunging out some 180g vinyl reissues, starting with “Phallus Dei” (1969), and “Wolf City” (1972), followed by “Dance Of The Lemmings” (1971), “Vive La Trance” (1973), and an extremely limited run of 500 copies of the 2LP “Yeti” from 1970.

Granted, it’s not new anymore, but it’s still different.

BUY AT AMAZON

SCREAM MAKER
Livin’ In The Past
Perris

Time for some classic heavy metal, courtesy of Polish metal band Scream Maker. And it really is rather good.  They have ratehr sensibly decided that nothing  good happened after “Screaming For Vengeance” and set about recording their version of early eighties metal.

To that end, they’ve pulled in the rather well known Alessandro Del Vecchio to produce, hauled in keyboardist Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) to perform the album intro, and then put their pedal firmly to the metal.  High pitched vocals? Check.  Screaming guitar solos? Check.  Chunky guitar riffs?  Check.  A song called ‘Metalheads’?  Check.

Ah, it’s just like being back in my fourteen year old bedroom, playing with my, um, tennis racket.  And the songs are good.  The title track, ‘All My Life’, ‘Confessions’ – cracking metal tunes one and all.  Even when they drift into power ballad mode, you can forgive them.  To top it off, they’ve even had the cover designed by Rosław Szaybo who did a wee album called “British Steel” back in the day.

BUY AT AMAZON

ONE MILE TO NOWHERE
The Way To Perdition
self released

Over to Austria now, for some more metal, this time from the oddly named One Mile To Nowhere.  They’re another band doing their best to turn out some vintage metal, although they also throw in some thrashier and even post grunge influences to shake things up.  And it’s a shame that I played this right after Scream Maker.

What they do, they do well.  The musicians are good, the singer is fine, and the production is fine as well.  It’s just there didn’t seem to be many songs that leapt out and grabbed you by the throat.  Their influences are all the right ones, as they mention Motorhead and Metallica, and there are even hints of Maiden and Saxon in the mix.  But they really do need a couple of killer songs.

Musically, they only hit full speed on a couple of numbers with ‘No Way’ and ‘Rock Meets Metal’, but they’re still a young band, this is their debut, and there is enough promise here to suggest that they keep working at it.  But, and this is a big but, they really need someone to check their lyrics out before they record.  I know English isn’t their first language but ‘Horny Day’ is just so wrong in so many ways!

BUY AT AMAZON