Clusterhead – Times of No Trust (Release Year – 2008)
Clusterhead is a 4 piece band from Regensburg, Germany. After 3 EP’s, the band has finally released their first full length CD, in 2008.
Times of No Trust starts off with a heavy, melodic tune Tears I’ve Cried, that sounds like a cross between Gotthard and the Scorpions. This is first tune that I have heard by Clusterhead, and it only made me hungry to hear more.
The title track, Times of No Trust, has a lot of loud, crunching guitars. I like the writing in the song, but for some reason the music doesn’t flow very well for me.
Rene Brandt really cuts loose with his Halford like screams on the track, Made of Stone. The heavy guitars really get you headbanging, and the keyboards give this song a semi-creepy edge to it. Cool stuff!
Clusterhead slows it down with the melodic tune, Ghosts. This mid tempo track screams hit, if a few radio stations pick this song up. I hear elements in this song that reminds me of both Queensryche, and Dokken. This is a very good tune.
The Human Factor is NOT a Metal Church cover tune, but maybe it should be. I replayed this song a few times, but I just could not get into it. It needed a little more variety in the guitar work to kick it in to gear.
Poisoned is another melodic number that I thought needed something. At times, I thought this song was overpowered by the keyboard melodies. The deep background vocals did not help out either.
Deep in the Night is jumpstarted by the double bass drumming of Reudiger Tonn. After hearing this, I wondered why Clusterhead chose to wait until this late in the album to inject the heavy machine gun rhythms into a song. Either way, I like this song a lot.
The opening guitar riffs on Prediction of a Night steers Clusterhead into an almost W.A.S.P. Like territory. Solid musicianship, cool bass riffs, and more Halford like screams enhance this tune. Good stuff!
Your Confession started out strong enough, with its heavy progressive rhythms, but this song is missing something, and some of the vocal parts didn’t really work for me.
If Dead Faint doesn’t get you singing fiiiiire, you headphones must be broke. This is one of the catchier songs by Clusterhead.
Hole In My Heart has some parts that bring Whitesnake’s Still of the Night to mind. While this song is not to that level, it is a pretty good tune, and a very solid way to close out this album.
Times of No Trust invokes memories of a lot of hard rock bands that I enjoyed from the 80′s, but only in parts. Clusterhead is a pretty good band with solid musicianship. I think on some songs they rely too much on the hard crunching guitars instead of letting Frank Stadbauer guitar work shine the way I believe it could. There are some pretty good songs on this album, and there are some that are fairly average.
If you are willing to take your time with this disc, I think you will find some good metal music you can enjoy.
For more information on Clusterhead, check out the band’s myspace page.
Rating:
Out of 10
Track Listing:
1. Tears I’ve Cried
2. Times Of No Trust
3. Made Of Stone
4. Ghosts
5. The Human Factor
6. Poisoned
7. Deep In The Night
8. Prediction Of A Fight
9. Your Confession
10. Dead Faint
11. Hole In My Heart
Clusterhead is:
Rene Brandt – Vocals
Reudiger Tonn – Drums
Andreas Meyer – Bass
Frank Stadbauer – Guitar
I sure hope this is gonna be better than his last solo effort!
That one blew big time…..