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Ten years ago or so I
took my sons to a concert in Dayton, Ohio. It was a triple
header, The Bullet Boys (remember them?) and Great White and
someone else, I can't even remember who. What struck me is that
all of the bands on the bill were heavily influenced by David
Lee Roth-era Van Halen. By influenced, I mean right down to
their stage show, the layout of the band, even their hair color.
And my sons, in their early teens, weren't any the wiser. It was
safe to say that Van Halen, at least with Davie Lee Roth, was
sooooo long ago by that time. And Led Zeppelin, who influenced
Van Halen?
We're talking really old. And
Muddy Waters? Whozat? This is no big shakes, actually. Rock is,
and was, and always will be derivative. And it's derivative now.
When I turn on the local hard rock station everything sounds
like Faith No More or Alice in Chains, or some combination of
the two. The same is true of Adema, a quintet out of
Bakersfield, California, the same part of the state that brought
us the well-adjusted fellows who go, collectively, by the name
of Korn. What is interesting about Adema is that in addition to
the aforementioned Alice in Chains and Faith No More they reach
back further, to Trent Reznor, as well as to Tool, who, as I
write this, is preparing to hit the stage in my home city.
Now, why buy a CD by a band that
sounds like a supergroup project? It's quite simple, really.
Adema was the subject of an intense bidding war - I've heard
that some 20 labels were in the fray - but when the dust settled
these guys realized that they had to deliver the goods. And
deliver, children, they did. While there isn't anything
incredibly original here, Adema does bring 12 memorable tracks
to the table, which is 11 or so more than a lot of groups (think
L****n P**k, for example) do. Apply what I call the alien
abduction test; you put a CD into the deck, and, if after 45
minutes, you can't remember a thing about what just transported
over the past three quarters of an hour, you've been ripped off.
ADEMA, however, will stir the blood. There are also enough
change-ups and disturbing lyric imagery to keep you wide awake.
Even more important, here, is that Adema's material is such that
these guys are carving out their own identity, albeit with a
well-used knife.
ADEMA's self-titled debut are
twelve songs of alienation, aimed right out the wazoo of their
target audience, disaffected males in their late teens and early
20s, with more buried ink than tanked New York Times stories
about corruption in the Clinton Administration. On "Blow It
Away," when Adema hits the line "I think about you
tonight/ and want to kill you" everyone --- and that
includes you and me, too --- knows what they're talking about.
Some of the tracks ("Giving In," "Freaking
Out") deal with the pain of substance abuse and trying, and
failing, to kick the monkey off your back. Others
("Skin," "Pain Inside") concern desire and
loss.
ADEMA sounds as if they actually
came to the party prepared to get the job down. There isn't a
loser on here, and there aren't two songs on here that sound
alike. That, in itself, is a rarity on a lot of hard rock CDs
these days. This is the perfect break up and freak out CD.
Play it loud as you play it
repetitively.
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| Artist |
Adema |
| Title |
Adema |
| Label |
Arista Records |
| Reviewer |
Joe Hartlaub |
| Rating |
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