Randy Piper’s Animal – Virus (Release Year – 2008)
Randy Piper’s Animal is back with their follow up disc, to 2006’s “Violent New Breed”. I really enjoyed their last disc, and still listen to it often. Needless to say, I have been looking forward to hearing the new CD “Virus”.
Pretty much from the first notes of “Cardiac Arrest” I knew that I was going to like this disc a lot. This high speed heavy rocker gets “Virus” firing on all cylinders immediately.
Much like “Violent New Breed”, singer Rich Lewis continues to sound like a Blackie Lawless clone, and this is a very good thing.
While some of the songs on “Virus” have a very W.A.S.P. like feel to them, there are also some surprising numbers that have a more modern feel.
The song “Don’t Wanna Die” could easily be a hit on modern rock radio in 2008. This song has a lot different feel from anything Randy Piper’s Animal has done before. If anything, this is a really cool effort by the band to stay relevant in today’s music scene.
“Crying Eagle” fools you with its slow intro. Without warning the song takes off with its cool machine gun rhythm. It flows naturally into “Unnatural High” which has an almost progressive Dream Theater sound to it.
Remember The Cranberries song “Zombie”? Randy Piper’s Animal covers it here, and quite frankly I like this metalized version of the song much better.
If there is anything negative about this CD, it would be the total play time, which falls short of 39 minutes. It only leaves me wanting to hear more music by Randy Piper’s Animal. As a whole, I enjoyed this CD quite a bit, so much in fact that I wouldn’t be surprised to see it make my Top 10 hard rock/metal CD’s of 2008.
Randy Piper plays his ass off on this disc, and as a result this disc shines. Rich Lewis sounds even better than on ‘Virus” than he did on “Violent New Breed”. Chris Laney not only does a superb job as the second axeman for Randy Piper’s Animal, he also handled the production on this disc. If Laney ever decides to hang up his guitar, he the skill to make it as a producer. Virus has top quality sound and production!
If you have enjoyed any music by W.A.S.P. or Randy Piper’s Animal in the past, pick this up. You won’t be disappointed.
Highly Recommended Listening!
Rating:
Out of 10
Track Listing:
1. Cardiac Arrest
2. Can’t Stop
3. Don’t Wanna Die
4. Crying Eagle
5. Unnatural High
6. Judgement Day
7. Who’s Next
8. Zombie
9. Shoot To
10. L.U.S.T.
Randy Piper’s Animal is:
Rich Lewis – Vocals
Randy Piper – Guitars
Chris Laney – Guitars
Nalle “Grizzly” Pahlsson – Bass
Johan Koleberg – Drums
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EXCELENTE..!!
I like this one a lot as well, very cool.It’s like where WASP might have gone had they stuck with straight up metal songs instead of getting into doing concept albums. Not that I didn’t like some of those type of albums, but I love those early WASP albums as well and Piper captures a lot of that sound and spirit here.
For anybody who hasn’t picked up Animal’s last release, “Violent New Breed”, you are in for quite a treat! These guys rock! “Virus”, from the samples I’ve heard, carries on where “VNB” left off. Can’t wait to pop this sucker in my cd player (ya, some of us still support the cd format)! See ya on Myspace Grizzly!!!
FYI, their first release- “900 lb Steam” is still available on Perris Records, but not as good as these last 2 releases.