Word: riffs
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Beginning with, “Breaking me Down,” SOiL asserts its style immediately. This up-tempo opening track opens with a feverish drum line whose pace is so furious that it seems on the verge of falling out of step with the halting and heavy riff layered upon it. McComb shows off his ability to dynamically shift vocal tone, without stretching his overall range. His thick-throated melody is reminiscent of Creed’s Scott Stapp with a lot less Jesus and a lot more animosity, while his more aggressive growls and screams are akin...
...cocktail and got the audience dancing. Not letting the pace lag, they moved into the universal funk favorite, Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon.” Here the other half of the rhythm section came to the fore. The bassist punched out the pentatonic riff in swift staccato beats; the guitarist wailed out a crackling solo that was perfectly punctuated by the pianist’s driving accompaniment; and again Frankie brought the tune to its climax with his fierce trumpet chops...
...undeniable talent as a sampler make Point, a potentially formulaic album, such a triumph. Cornelius is so good at regulating the give-and-take of his layered compositions that, rather than coming off as stiff and mechanical, they sound alive, constantly in motion. From a simple repeated-riff and sampled voice motif, “Point of View Point” blossoms effortlessly into a sparkling summertime anthem. “Another View Point” is a hypnotic, escalating pattern of electric guitar squeals. “Nowhere,” all weepy horns and crashing waves...
Several tracks start out with promise. “That’s Why” gets the rhythm moving, with Tammy Ealom’s untuned vocals musing over a happy-go-lucky guitar riff. The lyrics, as whimsical as Dressy Bessy’s name, could easily be fun: “Oh my / He’s shy shy / guess that’s why / He’s bye bye.” But the song goes exactly nowhere. The rhythm guitar cycles through the same riff, the band playing on automatic pilot until a bridge...
...leading man of tick, tick... BOOM! is fast on his way to becoming one of the theater world’s brightest stars. In between brilliantly originating the role of Riff Raff in the Rocky Horror revival and reinvigorating Cabaret’s Emcee, Esparza dazzled as BOOM’s Jonathan. It was a performance of such vulnerability, charm and emotional (not to mention vocal) power, that Esparza is assured of a tremendous future...