-- Cactus - V | (Audio CD) MSRP $ 15.98 Amazon Price $ 15.98 Savings $ 0.00 | |  Release Date: 18 July, 2006, Escapi
TRACK LISTING - Doing Time
- Muscle And Soul
- Cactus Music
- The Groover
- High In The City
- Day For Night
- Living For Today
- Shine
- Electric Blue
- Your Brother`s Keeper
- Blues For Mr. Day
- Part Of The Game
- Gone Train Gone
- Jazzed
Usually ships in 24 hours | | | "CACTUS RETURNS" | Although Rusty Day the original lead singer for Cactus has passed away the remaining members and new addition have put out a very good C D.
The music has their trademark hard edge and rocks out!!!I do not think you will be disappointed and I like the fact that they did not ressurect any of the previous material as some groups do on reunion efforts...the new material stands up. | | | | dissapointing ressurection of legendary rockband | | They call themselves now proudly "The American Led Zeppelin", I wish it could be. 35 years after their true onforgettable albums "Cactus", "One Way ...or Another" and "Restrictions", which indeed come close to the first 2 L.Z. albums I and II and are at times slightly reminiscent of III and IV, the same band minus leadsinger Rrusty Day (who has long since gone and lives now in a better world, I hope) ressurects from the grave but better had not done so. The new songmaterial is flat, so is the new singers voice. But then, who can stand in the shadow of Day? But besides that, not a moment I have the idea of listening to the remarkable rythmtandem, formerly of Vanilla Fudge, later among others Beck Bogert Appice, of bassplayer Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, let alone leadguitarist par excellence Jim McCarty. At that time he used a simple two knob device "the screamer" and got the hell out of his Les Paul and small ampstack. The music was intense and loud! Of course, times change, tastes too and those people are not the youngest anymore, you cannot compare their deeds nowadays with those of three and half decade before, but one wonders why should they take the trouble to make an album under the Cactus flag. No single song can stand against one on the mentioned classic albums. The acoustic guitar instrumental "Blues for mr. Day" is strongly reminiscent of "Mean Night in Cleveland" and as such a poor tribute to their excellent leadvocalist. Jim Kunes as singer should not have been first choice (but instead Paul Rodgers of Free and Bad Company, who now teams up with Queen), his voice is simple too flat and not in the least comparible with that of the late mr. Day. That is not strictly necessary of course but the endresult is not promising. Like I said, the songs are not the strongest either. Bogert and Appice can do much much better than that, for instance take a listen to "DBA", from which the D stands for Rick Derringer, just a couple of years back. The songs on that album are not only stronger, much more in the vein of the earlier work, but also more varied. Well, the world is not disengrating with this new album and happily I will return to my roots with the really outstanding Cactus 2 CD "Barely Contained - the Studio Sessions" [5 stars for that]. | | | | Sorry, I expected more. | | Carmine Appice has been really busy of late. He has released 2 albums with Pat Travers (Lot of Balls/Bazooka), 1 as the Carmine Appice Project (Guitar Zeus), toured with the re-formed Vanilla Fudge and also this, the reformed Cactus Band. It is nothing like the Cactus of the early 70s. I was expecting at least one song with a bit of BOOGIE!!! for nostalgia`s sake, but there was not one. Why couldn`t the track Cactus Music for instance be called Cactus Boogie? Think about it, as it could have worked. The music here is sometimes very much in the Classic hard Rock mold (Brian Johnson Era ACDC and Dio for example). The opening track "Doin time" gets the album off to a great start and does in fact remind me of Brian Johnson without the screech. New vocallist Jimmy Kunes is a damned fine singer with a very powerful voice, and I would easily compare it to the outstanding Paul Rodgers wannabe singer, Danny Bowes of British Hard Rock band Thunder. The better songs however are the Bluesy songs like Day for Night. The Harmonica playing is also very good, BUT it was more akin to John Popper all over the place stuff than the muffled boogie strains we got from Rusty Day. I compare this Cactus line-up to the latest version of Foghat. Both bands have had to draft in new singers that in no way compete with their predescessors (?!?!?), and the music on offer cannot match the classic sounds of the early 70`s. BUT, also in the same catergory is 10 Years After who drafted in Joe Gooch (A Complete unknown) to take over not only the daunting place of guitarist from the legendary Alvin Lee, but also handle the vocals. He was the perfect replacement. AND, not only was the 1st Studio release ("Now") featuring Gooch a very fine effort, it was followed up by a Double Live album which gave us the best of the Gooch and Lee output - Result - A WINNER. I highly recommend that this Cactus line-up do the same. A new Live double Album with Classics like Oleo/Parchman Farm/Big Mama Boogie mixed in with the best of V is an absolute necessity. It really would work. And the same goes to Foghat. Let`s face it, Foghat and Cactus were without doubt the two best Power Boogie bands ever (Maybe you could include Status Quo, but they cannot produce at the moment) and there are no bands I am aware of that deliver Power Boogie of this type anymore. Bring it on, and quick. | | |
-- zzzz
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