Album Review: Paladin - Anamnesis
Reviewed by Carl Black
Listening to tributes from one band to another has always been blighted by two very bad personal experiences. One was a dreadful album of second division hair bands that each covered a song from Appetite for Destruction. Truly horrific. The other was when 'Kiss My Ass', a tribute to Kiss was released. Lots of hype surrounding the album, as you’d expect. I later found out that when Garth Brooks Covered Hard Luck Woman for the album, the current members of Kiss acted as his backing band. Kiss playing on their own tribute album… wow! I also found out that Gene and Paul had arranged the whole unsavoury business.
Listening to this tribute to Nevermore and in particular to deceased singer Warrel Dane who passed in 2017 by Paladin, a young Atlanta based thrash/progressive band, was going to be interesting. The songs on this E.P. are 'The River Dragon Has Come', 'Final Product' and '42147'. Not being a massive Nevermore Fan I don’t know where these songs fit within their legacy and I wonder what true Nevermore fans think? Respect? Anger? Somewhere in-between?
The songs are played fantastically well by the American four piece, early thrash influences with heavy metal overtones and pin point accuracy. The production is modern and slick and the art work is created by Travis Smith who was a long-time collaborator with Nevermore, but unfortunately this music tells us very little about both bands.
Paladin have done such a good job and they obviously have such respect for Nevermore and Warrel Dane, they daren’t stray from the path and change to much from the original script. We don’t get to hear a fresh slant of Nevermore or how their influence has affected the bands of the future. I don’t think younger fans will be beating down the Nevermore door either. So the E.P.'s purpose is a bit stagnant and maybe a little pointless.
Should these songs not have been better saved for the live environment. One song each night? Would that not be a better tribute? It's certainly ot vulgar like the Kiss tribute, nor a car crash like the Guns N Roses tribute album, but maybe, just maybe it's a bit surplus to requirements?
Paladin release 'Anamesis' on December 13th via Prosthetic Records
