CHRIS CAFFERY
Pins and Needles
Locomotive Records 2007
www.chriscaffery.com

Genre
Rock / metal

The Good
It’s not like it is a surprise to me, but the guitar work on the majority of the album is phenomenal. I really like the aggressive driving tempo that most of the tracks feature. The title track’s lightning fast riffs and monster drum work sells the song right off the track. The best thing about the choice in material on the album is that while most of it is of the metallic crunch variety, there is a nice mixture of melody included. The instrumental “In The Midst” is beautifully done with a definitive classical music feel. The traditional Middle Eastern musical sound serves as the foundation of the song “Mettle Eastern”, which Caffery builds up with a trademark vicious growl to the guitar. Meanwhile, the one track on the album that could come closest to being termed a “power ballad” is “Once Upon A Time.”

While the edgy, gritty vocal sound remains from Caffery, you can hear a bit more smoothness to his voice. “Once Upon A Time” and “Chained” (another great rocker) feature a far “cleaner” vocal delivery. On the opposite end of the vocal discussion comes the 2007 version of Caffery’s “Pisses Me Off”. Man, I tell you I love his delivery and the lyrical content. It’s an excellent manner to convey his anger through song. The best songs on the album include “Y.G.B.F.K.M”, “The Sign Of The Crossed”. The top two are “It’s S-A-D” and “66”. The former is just a perfect song with the tempo, music and vocals. The latter has a slightly slower feel to it, and has a nice rhythmic groove as well. The chorus is instantly memorable, and you can’t help but sing along with it.

The Bad
The songs “Walls” and “Worms” did absolutely nothing for me. There just didn’t seem to be much of interest in either song to really hook the listener’s ear. The title track’s vocals seemed to be too low in the mix. There were some affectations on a few different songs that I didn’t enjoy. There’s a computer effect here, a pretentious sounding vocal intro (not from Caffery as far as I can discern) there. They generally didn’t affect my overall enjoyment of the song, but it just felt like space being filled up instead of something that actually needed to be included.

The Verdict
I liked the Faces CD from Caffery when it was released, but didn’t much care for the bonus disc God Damn War. The vocals seemed far too rough, though I did come to enjoy them after a few listens. There was no such problem this time around. Yes there were a couple of songs I didn’t like on this album, but overall, Pins And Needles is a superb slab of molten metal. The disc’s material leans towards more of a Doctor Butcher thrashiness than the symphonic feel of Savatage, but believe me, you will enjoy the heck out of this CD.

Did You Know?
Chris Caffery leads the East Coast touring lineup of Trans-Siberian Orchestra. He’s toured as a member of Doro Pesch’s band.

Rating: out of 5

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-- Jay Roberts