Frankie and Gator: Satan

Satan is the latest (first?) release from this Finnish five piece set with a strange name. Then again, the members have also some peculiar nicknames such as: Dick Hideous (vocals); Denny Fag (guitar); Butch Muffdiver) drums and so on.

Frankie and Gator claimed to be a "hard progressive alternative jazz rock band". I could have expected something in the vein of maybe The Flower King meet Dream Theater meet Ayreon and King Crimson, but it was not really the case. You can scratch the progressive-alternative and jazz parts and keep the hard rock aspects perhaps if you want. Then, add a death core and punk-ish attitude to complete the picture of what you are about to listen to. Don't let the title mislead you either; this is in no way a black metal disc. The guitar work is, by far, the best part of this album. Good crushing riffs, quite catchy at times, and melodic clean arpeggios are omnipresent here. To accompany those, you have the screamed/core death vocals, coupled with high pitch clean ones; fat bass and decent drumming. Nothing to be crazy about actually, even if Frankie and co are ambitiously claiming that: "We would appreciate our music to be heard and recognized and given the credit it deserves". As I said, the guitar is juicy and so on, but nothing is new or outstanding on this CD. Granted, there are some nice moments to be found here and there. For instances, "Intentions" have acoustic arpeggios, calmer parts and show a more mature songwriting. "Lover" has a nice lead guitar, catchy chorus and sounds a bit like something you might have heard on Alice Cooper's Brutal Planet. Then on track #9, "Parasite", they show some wicked guitar playing and a bit of a sick vibe. As for the rest of this stuff, well I feel it was more aimed at the teenage-emo type crowd.

Satan is far from being the best release I've heard from Finland.

Track listing:
1- The Other Part
2- Business
3- Dead, Cold &Free
4- Intentions
5- Feel the Hand
6- Handplay
7- Lover
8- Opiate Boy
9- Parasite
10- Imagine a Robot

Added: January 4th 2012
Reviewer: Denis Brunelle
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 1804
Language: english

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