Johnny Young … CD Reviews
www.atnzone.com
Johnny Young - Drone
 THIS is the kind of rock it&Mac226;s always a pleasure to get in the mail. Melodic, hard, not heavy, not death, not wholly negative, just a Great Band playing the dark riffs of power guitar stuff that starting coming together in the 70's with Kiss and those folks. Being a Queen fan, I understand the magic of getting a huge sound out of only 4 people. Johnny Young does it one better. He&Mac226;s on vocals, guitar. Jimi Brix does bass. Lex Dunbar bangs those damn drums. Anything else you hear was laid on after the fact. And judging by the sound, there&Mac226;s a hot lot of it, complete with a few more vocals. No wonder Mick Taylor grabbed Mr. Young to be his singer on a world tour.
Well, the guitar work is top notch, and then up a notch more. If he were in the 60's, by now he'd be hailed as one of the greatest singer-guitarists, along with Clapton and Hendrix. After all, songs like Mud&Mac226; bring out his black side more than usual, and with the typically blinding electric guitar intro, you the listener are kicked into a dynamite blast of guitar licks that doesn't stop. 12 songs, and it won&Mac226;t stop.
Sometimes the lyrics are a bit straight forward, but it happens a lot in harder rock. From If I&Mac226; Johnny promises that "if I was Doctor McCoy, I'd cure the world of disease / if I was your love slave, you&Mac226;d be the only one I please&Mac226;, which is pretty much the Point of being those people, eh? Okay, that&Mac226;s nitpicking. Cause in other areas of just the same song: "if I was a politician, I'd take the money and run / if I was your only savior, I'll save you when I'm done&Mac226;" But it&Mac226;s the EXCITEMENT that Johnny Young causes on that spot in between your ears that really shoots you up big time. With studio musician skill, he slides every ROCK song into the bar with that flaming guitar and shaggadelic vocal style like Eastwood controlling a western set.
Oh, and speaking of Clapton, Johnny comes close to this sort of vocal with his Thaw&Mac226; Kicks the door open, not off its hinges. But hell, how will the door hold up for long after 60 minutes of this sort of abuse?
January 2001 - Ben Ohmart
Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck
Johnny Young, Drone
Think of Black Sabbath, step it back a few notches, add some hooks and groovin' bass, and you have Johnny Young. This power trio stays at maximum warp drive, without any breaks. There are twelve tracks at your disposal. And it's unadulterated, unscathed rock and roll.
This album will really grow on you as it goes into hyperdrive. By the time "They Eat Their God" closes out the CD you will wonder what hit you. It won't hurt, you will just want some more. With crunching authoritative chords on lead guitar, and with a wild and nasty rhythm section, Johnny Young will blast their way into your eardrums, and leave them ringing for hours. How else can I put this? This group kicks ass and takes no prisoners, it's as simple as that.
Ah, rock and roll is poetic justice, isn't it?
© Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck - February 15, 2001
JERSEY BEAT #63
JOHNNY YOUNG - Shed Your Skin (Menagerie Records)
This potently primordial 12 track debut CD offers a blisteringly effective post-modem hard rock combination of 80's heavy metal's mighty caveman stomp and 90's alternative rock's carefully wrought melodic accessibility. Lead singer Johnny Young's gritty, raspy, soaring voice savagely tears its way through each hard-hitting song. The crunchy, power chord-ridden guitars, putty, bottom-heavy drums which never let up on the chunky, surging beats, and a thickly plodding bass create a powerful, pulverizing sonic thrust which thankfully eschews all-out abrasiveness in favor of a much more tautly harmonic and controlled approach to banging out a tune that gains considerable strength from its tightly focused intensity. The band's harshly down-to-earth, confrontational, unsentimental sensibility caps things off perfectly. A righteously dead-on serving of no-bullshit, straight-with-no-chaser rock'n'roll fury.
|
