Ross the Boss - New Metal Leaders 2008

Interesting! Well, that was hardly my thought when I got this record in the mail, a 96-track promo record. It is just that, who can really avoid getting interested when a record with metal and leader in the title comes their way? I ask you, who? Well, lets just say that I couldn’t avoid it, I was so interested that it could be called hardly interested at all. It is like human made global warming, there is just so many inconsistencies and unproved theories that you just cannot deny it. And a bandname with Boss in, what’s the deal with that?

Ross ”the Boss” Friedman is known in the metal communities, much for his expertise on aluminium but also for his time in American metal constellation Manowar which may or may not be well-known in this community. He was in this band until their ”acclaimed” Kings of Metal record. So what’s the deal with all this metal? I mean, I figured it was something used for many things like cars, and other stuff that need the metallic rigidity.

Rigidity is something that can be said about what is on this many tracked record which actually consists of eleven tracks compressed into ninety-six. It was actually a surprise to me when the opening track following the intro, started out real good. Even though it was quite regular American heavy metal with the top heavy guitar riffs, the pounding base lines and the heavy robust drumming, it was actually very good with a melody that is catch on and a chorus that is as heavy as it is mildly catchy. The track Blood of Knifes is an excellent start and it promises much to come in the following eighty-or-so tracks.

Now I am laeving Earth for no raeson as the big brain once said and I say the same but not Earth, instead I am leaving the tracks for no reason. I move to tell you a little about this record’s production which is fine by the way. The production is actually top-notch, it is solid and all way through it is powerful and at the same time polished without the sound of being polished, it feels like a well-made craftsmanship this production and there is always something to say about that.

Now back to the tracks which besides the opening song is not that much to have really, we have all heard it before, lots of times. It feels quite dull when we are introduced to clichés in both music and in lyrics, Ross the Boss actually manages to produce even more cliché than Freedom Call themselves and that is quite an accomplishment as Freedom Call really works in order to write cliché lyrics. Ross the Boss does it unawarely or because they think it is a cool theme to write these songs, point is that they seem to take it seriously while Freedom Call does it for fun.

In all honesty though, there is really nothing to complain about when it comes to this band, they do everything well, the production is top-notch, musically there is nothing wrong. There is just one gnawing fact, and that is the fact that we have heard this thing time and time again, time after time. I think this record would benefit from having something like three or four songs removed as it wouldn’t feel as long and it would be a lot easier to keep interest throughout the entire record.

Just the painstaking fact that this record gets incredibly boring to comb through the entire repertoire is enough to merit a grade on the lower side of the scale. The fact that the song Blood of Knives so so very good is enough makes the grade turn slightly upwards but it isn’t enough to bring it over or on the halfway mark.

Ross the Boss also finds it important to point out that it is a band and not centred around Ross the person. I don’t know if it was a statement from the band or the person though.

HHHHHHH

This one was written 09-04-2008