JASON BIELER: Songs For The Apocalypse (HARD ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Remember Saigon Kick? The hard rock band had a small success at the beginning of the 90s, notably with the ballad 'Love Is On The Way', before falling into oblivion, crushed by bands like Extreme and Mr Big. In any case, its leader, Jason Bieler, has never stopped being active on the music scene, releasing a first solo album in 1998, "Houston We Have A Problem", then creating his own label. Here he is back with "Songs For The Apocalypse" accompanied by an enigmatic Baron Von Bielski Orchestra, about which we will never know anything since there is no question of symphonic metal in this album.

So what is it all about? Well, pop metal, vaguely progressive at times, sometimes amusing but, let's admit it, as long as a rainy day in confinement. It is undeniable that Jason Bieler knows how to compose music and that he knows how to surround himself. The impressive list of guest artists on the album is there to prove it with Todd LaTorre (Queensrÿche), Devin Townsend, Ron Thal, Clint Lowery (Sevendust) and Dave Ellefson (Megadeth). But the problem is that "Songs For The Apocalypse" is a tiring album, trapped by its overly eclecticism and its inability to match good musical ideas with an often unbearable mellow pop vocals ('Annalise', 'Down In A Hole').

Yet the vocal harmonies work in places and could even have given birth to a new genre, which could have been called progressive surf metal ('Apology' and 'Bring Out Your Dead' sound like heavy tracks sung by the Beach Boys). Alas, Jason Bieler sprinkles the album with conventional pop rock songs without much interest ('Anthem For Losers', 'Very Fine People'), when he doesn't fall into a psychedelic hard rock inherited from Ghost ('Stones Will Fly'), without however having the melodic power of his model.

It is finally this lack of power which harms this album the most. Jason Bieler never finds the right distance between the riffs and the vocal harmonies, so that even the most adventurous songs ('Crab Claw Dan', 'Beyond Hope') struggle to arouse interest. It's hard to know whether the musician is doing too much or not enough, but it is clear that "Songs For The Apocalypse" misses the point most of the time and is far from fulfilling the hopes that its three-star cast suggested. - Official website

JASON BIELER

SONGS FOR THE APOCALYPSE

FRONTIERS RECORDS

HARD ROCK