Blackstar - Barbed Wire Soul (1997) (Japanese, TFCK-87140)

This band was the remains of Carcass (minus Bill Steer) along with former Cathedral bassist Mark Griffiths. They played a straight forward 70s metal/rock style, not unlike the album Swansong from Carcass. After one album, the band split.

When Carcass disbanded, following the Swansong debacle with Columbia and Earache, I was floored. Then I hear that Walker, Owen, and Regadas had snagged this Griff dude and decided to form a new band. When I heard the lineup, I was sure this would just be some sort of quasi-Carcass continuation, and being a huge Carcass fan, I anxiously awaited the arrival of Barbed Wire Soul in my mailbox. It turned out that my expectations would be both right and wrong.

Barbed Wire Soul sounds, at first listen (heh, I almost typed "glance", that would've been dumbassed), like a progression of the Swansong-era Carcass sound. Not that this is a bad thing, as I personally loved Swansong, and what else were we to expect with three-fourths of the Swansong lineup in the band? However, once you get into the album, you find that it isn't as aggressive as Swansong, nor is it as "heavy". Where Swansong was a polished-to-a-high-gloss death metal release, Barbed Wire Soul stands out as a more "mainstream" metal release, albeit a lot rougher around the edges. The first, and most obvious, indication that this isn't merely Carcass v2.0 is in the lyrics. Jeff Walker retains all of the sarcasm he had in Carcass, but has thrown his old themes out the window in favor of more "traditional" subject matter. In fact, the sarcasm is out in full-force right from the outset, with the opener Game Over appearing to be Jeff's message to the world: "I'm supposed to be done, but guess what, you're not rid of me yet". The musical content is closer to Swansong-era Carcass, but it has been refined and further evolved to fall somewhere between basic heavy metal and the polished death metal of Carcass. The playing isn't as precise as some of the members' other releases, but it's not meant to be a polished, mass-appeal album for fans of Carcass. This is four guys creating good music and having fun with it.

OK, enough with all of the Swansong references already, let's examine the actual album.

To start with, the other album that this reminds me of is Gorefest's Soul Survivor, if not in actual "sound" but in approach. Both of them retain a lot of the aggressiveness that they had in previous releases, but are presented in a different fashion. People have labeled Soul Survivor as Death 'N Roll, and I think that this label may fit here as well, given the detuned guitars and the retension of Jeff Walker's vocal stylings. Some people have complained about Death 'N Roll, particularly in the instance of Soul Survivor, but you know what? I kinda dig it. I've got more than enough straight-up death metal albums in my collection, and this is a refreshing change of pace. Barbed Wire Soul contains a lot of great riff-work and catchy lyrics, but what really sets it apart from a lot of other similar releases is the inclusion of a ton of extraneous bits. First off, there are saxophone solos. Saxophone solos! There's a brass section playing during Waste of Space that actually complements the song very, very well, which is surprising given the style of music these guys are playing. It's the little things like that, the added element of experimentation and desire to step outside the boundaries established by their former bands, that really helps make this album something outstanding. Musically, the album features a lot of uncomplicated songs, avoiding the over-embellishment that you get with a lot of contemporary bands these days. You get riffs, lyrics, the occasional WTF moment like the aforementioned appearance of a freaking SAXOPHONE SOLO, and not much else. But the simplicity inherent in the music is actually a strength. It's an easy listen. And it's damn catchy at the same time. Plus, the production is very well done as well, so you can hear all of the nuances in the guitar work or the rhythm section.

The standout tracks on Barbed Wire Soul are Sound of Silence, Rock & Roll Circus, New Song, Give Up The Ghost, Waste of Space, and Deep Wound. Sound of Silence has a great chorus that will have you tapping your feet. Rock & Roll Circus is a slower, plodding song, featuring a lead guitar bit in the middle of the song that is awesome in its own right, but made even more awesome because it is used as the intro to a kinda atmospheric, Sabbathy bridge featuring the saxophone solo. New Song has a weird intro leading into a pretty upbeat, mid-paced number with some solid riffs. Give Up The Ghost might be my favorite track on the album, with, once again, some great riff work and lead guitar bits. Then we get to Waste of Space. This one is where the brass section comes in and instead of taking over the song or making it seem, well, weird, somehow manages to complement a metal song so well that it should be illegal. Deep Wound has a really catchy intro riff that might be the best riff on the entire album. For the most part, the rest of the album stands up well, with none of the songs being easy to label as filler, but those are the standouts I listen to every time I play the album. Which is actually quite a lot, even now, showing that in the playlist of at least one metal fan it has stood the test of time and not gotten old or worn-out. I've got the Japanese pressing of the CD to complement the original Metal Blade issue, which has a bunch of demos (they're demos, cool to have but nothing overly awesome) and three cover songs. The Thin Lizzy cover, Running Back, is whatever, but the others are pretty damn good. The cover of Husker Du's The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill is aggressive and fully metal, but the cover of The Cult's Peace Dog is just hilarious. Hearing Jeff Walker sing those lyrics is just a laugh. This is what makes a great cover song, not a note-for-note re-recording by a different group of musicians, but a fun interpretation of a song by a bunch of musicians clearly enjoying it. This is almost as amusing as Jeff Walker's later version of Rocky Mountain High, and that's an accomplishment.

Overall, this is just a damn good album by a bunch of talented musicians who are stepping outside their traditional boundaries to deliver a well-crafted album that is at times seriously proficient, at times completely hilarious, but always a lot of fun to listen to.

~ www.metal-archives.com