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Metal Mike Chlasciak - The Metal Worker

Label: CMM Entertainment
Format: CD download
Released: 2013
Reviewed By: Mark Gromen
Rating: 7.5/ 10


Another candidate for underground bio-pic, perhaps utilizing this seemingly autobiographical title: Cold War immigrant from Poland, without knowing English, moves to New Jersey, endures a stint with The Great Kat, rising to be guitarist in Halford, only to see The Metal God return to full-time service with Judas Priest, leaving the affable Chlasciak (metal to the core!) to fend for himself, awaiting Halford’s next solo effort. Which is one of the reasons I assume most of these nine tracks (28 minutes) are instrumental. Seemingly templates for songs that never developed lyrics, the expense of recording, with the public’s diminished interest in CD sales, surely got Metal Mike chomping at the bit (if not with a couple of mortgage/car payments coming due).

 

After a slow, chunky 1:50 ‘On Leather Wings’, there’s the balls out, headbanging ‘Don’t Shoot The Crown’. Speaking of crowns, the length kingpin, at a mere 4:11, is ‘We Are The Cross’, the first of three inclusions to actually feature as singer, stratospheric shrieker Carlos Zema (Outworld). Throughout, Mike is the calling card, but this isn’t wall-to-wall guitar wanking. There’s a backing band: Kevin Talley (Hate Eternal/ Six Feet Under) on drums and Mike LePond (bass, Symphony X). Apart from the closing ‘Weight Of The Heart’, a dual tracked all-guitar “ballad,” most of this material is faster/more thrash than Chlasciak can get away with in Halford, even Fight covers like ‘Nailed To The Gun’ or ‘Into The Pit’. Listen to the speedy ‘Tonight We Ride’, which shifts tempos effortlessly or ‘Hail And Horns’, with its blackened death intro. ‘M Is For Metal’ starts with a bounce along traditional lines, before burning through scales, then returning to more tasteful/restrained territory. ‘This Is War’ could be the companion piece to the aforementioned ‘Don’t Shoot The Crown’ in terms of intensity and whiplash inducing delivery.

 
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