REVIEW: Speak No Evil, Speak No Evil (Universal)
- Andrew Duncan
Speak No Evil is the tale of a traditional hard-rock drama. Greg Weiss, Miami native and bassist, was tired of doing session work and playing cover gigs night after night. He did what any struggling musician would do - he packed his bags and left town. He went where every hard rocker dreams of going - Los Angeles, home of long hair and leather pants.
Determined to find fame, he convinced his hometown buddy Lee Rios, guitarist, to take the advice that Robert Plant sang while in Led Zeppelin, and Rios joined Weiss in California. Soon he recruited lead vocalist Curtis Skelton, drummer Chris Frazier and guitarist Danny Gill to join the brigade.
So the story went, the group went forth and rocked hard. For four years, they rocked the L.A. night clubs, and eventually released a self-titled debut CD.
Speak No Evil follows the Chris Cornell/Layne Staley paradigm with part sludge-rock, and part thick-and-juicy-rhythm-groove rock. Skelton, who grew up in Southeast Texas, sings like he lives in the Pacific Northwest. Like most groove-metal of today, the album is darkly written with down-tuned thundering rhythms.
In some cases, the band only opens a jar of flies, with songs like "Small Words" and "All Is Well" showing off their acoustic and percussive abilities. The other nine songs are electrified, commonly utilizing lower-end chord structures to give the songs weight.
The band is good at what they do while rocking out with the best of them. However, with a lack of innovative structure, the band could easily blend in with the world of alternative-rock radio-ites.
