Pavic
Is War the Answer?

Marko Pavic and his band is asking a question to which the answer should be obvious to all of us. Unfortunately many of the world leaders do not agree, which makes them stupid. Anyone thinking that the answer to that question is yes is a very, very, extremely stupid person. War is never the answer, people are just too stupid to realise that. Anyway, the cover is quite cool, imagine the blood and gore that thing could cause on a battlefield. That cover prides the third album of this band, last time around for them was 2008 and since then they have had to replace their vocalist and have a long break it seems. I liked Unconditioned which was released in 2008, albeit with some reservations for it being a bit repetitive and maybe a tad bland. So, is six years enough to take them in a more interesting direction?

It is like before, arena rock with anthemic songs that are easy to sing along with. It is very catchy and the songs seems written for the big stage or for airplay on the radio. It is simple songs, easy to take in and easy to sing along with, nothing really groundbreaking. The songs are also often moulded from the same form with a few variations but the album feels a touch unvaried despite the short playing time just short of 39 minutes. Also, the new singer although a big part in the writing process often feels very much like any other singer. He has a decent voice but nothing that really stands out and the fact is that despite its very fine modern production this album feels a bit like something from the past. From the times of the major arena rockers period of greatness. It is also slightly overpolished as it feels a bit tame and a bit too well arranged, it lacks a bit of “edge”.

It is a good album, that much is certain. But it is not brilliant and it is not something I think I will return to now that this review is done, it will most likely go the way of its predecessor, forgotten and only looked at again if and when the band releases a new album. There is nothing particularly wrong with the album as such but the songs and the performances just don’t stand out and when listening to as many albums as I do it really needs to do that in order for me to take notice. One thing I do take notice of though is the really daft cover of Duran Duran’s Notorious which isn’t a particularly good song to begin with but here it is just wrong and terrible. So, this album is a disappointment then? Well, it isn’t really, I didn’t expect anything and I didn’t really get anything so I suppose it is what I was expecting, a good album.

Best song on the album is the title track, it is a good song and the standout one on the album. It sets a tone the album later cannot keep which sets it up for a bit of a disappointment. Truth be told though, it is quite far from the best of the best in the genre and it is head and shoulders above the rest of the songs on this album. The third track which is also the video track called Song For the Rain is another good song, it is a typical arena rock power ballad that is a type of song that cannot be bad as long as you are not a real hack and these guys are not hacks. That song would probably go down really well on the radio stations if the band can get seen enough.

In the end I would say that I like this album, it is a good listen. It will never go down in history but I doubt a buyer will be disappointed with it either. So I think we can conclude that it is good, just not good enough.

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