Customer Reviews

Mullmuzzler 2

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'd like to agree with the review of Sven Schreiber, which praises Matt Guillory's contribution to this album. Indeed, keyboardist Guillory proves to be a very capable songwriter, whether he's helping LaBrie tackle heart-warming ballads or familiar progressive metal territory. What's most important is that the LaBrie/Guillory writing team seems to have developed a strong chemistry, and one has to wonder why anyone bothered with Trent Gardner's input, or that of the Shadow Gallery folks. Now, LaBrie and Guillory _are_ MullMuzzler. And they are a very strong, standalone band, not just the side project of Dream Theater's singer.

Each Labrie/Guillory song is a highlight, and since that's seven of the ten tracks here, you can't go wrong. I don't mean to wail the first three songs - they're still good. Although the vocal melodies of "Afterlife" are at first awkward, the song grew on me big time with every listen. "Venice Burning" and "Confronting the Devil" are also good, heavy numbers, but they lack the special melodic quality and irreproachable arrangements of the LaBrie/Guillory songs.

The best song is definitely "Stranger," with its odd, heavy rhythms, sparkling acoustic verses, and powerfully melodic, soaring chorus. LaBrie is at his vocal best here. "A Simple Man" is a snarling hard rock number that still crams in gripping melodies. The three ballads, "Listening," "Fallin,'" and "Believe" are much less saccharine than the ones one the first MullMuzzler. All three are musically beautiful, elegantly performed, and passionately sung. Closing the album is the eccentric "Tell Me." Battering drums, throbbing bass lines, and aggressive guitars intensify the power of the arrangement, but never compromise the fine melodic sense. On the production front, James LaBrie has a good ear for his work, and the mix is heavy and visceral, but always with plenty of range and breathing room.

It's actually quite surprising how good this album is. Not because I expected it to be bad, but the leap in quality over MullMuzzler's first disc is just _huge_. Again, we can credit LaBrie's own growth as a musician, and the help he gets from the gifted Matt Guillory. MullMuzzler 2 is one of 2001's best progressive/metal releases, so don't pass it up.

This is indeed a very solid second album by LaBrie. It follows closely the track laid down by its predecessor, Keep It To Yourself.
LaBrie has managed to assemble a very talented group of musicians on this album. Every instrument is well performed and the band sounds very coherent and consistent, almost seasoned. Songwriting is fabulous as well, with pieces ranging from soft ballads to progressive metal storms. In general, the album shows clear Dream Theater influences but tends to have a lighter and more melodic sound.
The true highlight of this album though, is James LaBrie's soaring performance. Never before has his voice sounded so powerful and so emotional. The fact that the music seems to have been specially written to support his voice rather than dampen it certainly helps, but there is no doubt that this is one of his best efforts.
Mullmuzzler 2 however, seems to be a little harder to appreciate than Keep It To Yourself. I was not particularly impressed with it the first time I listened to it. But as with most good progressive albums, it becomes a treasure once you manage to understand its beauty.

"Simply Stunning" is how I would sum up this new experience by Dream Theater frontman James LaBrie. This album picks up directly where the last took off but now we can see several improvements and refreshing ideas. For one the songs are significantly more melodic than the previous album and are a bit more expressive this time with slow groovin' chorus lines. Features include:

-Better produced material and well balanced
-Extremely powerful and moving
-Each song stands on its own and is equally impressive
-"Venice Burning" is an ode to the great "Metropolis Pt. 1"
-"Tell Me" has to be the greatest last song on a non-DT album ever.
-Songs are a refreshing listen when compared to other mainstream and prog bands.

One thig you'll notice is the opening song isn't as "in-your-face" explosive as "His Voice" but it is quite a bit deeper and meaningful than the previous album opener. As always the chorus's are just breathtaking as well as the superbly tight band that makes up Mullmuzzler. If you haven't purchased a Mullmuzzler album yet you should start with "2" as it is their most professional and produced album yet. The only thing I could think of to complain about is there isn't enough material on this disc as the total length comes to 52 minutes, which isn't close to the full capacity of a standard CD. It doesn't detract that much seeing as how brilliant each song is. M2 scores big and may very well be the definitive heavy rock band in the future.

The 1st MullMuzzler CD "Keep It To Yourself" was mainly a vehicle for the striking voice of Dream Theater's James LaBrie, and therefore exposed a crude mixture of three different styles (Shadow Gallery, Trent Gardner, and Matt Guillory). The 2nd MullMuzzler release is quite different. Although it still contains "external" material by Trent Gardner and the Shadow Gallery songwriters (now reduced to Gary Wehrkamp & Carl Cadden-James), the main and best parts of the CD are clearly contributed by keyboarder Matt Guillory, who has greatly improved his songwriting skills in the meantime. The CD starts quite promising with Gardner's "Afterlife", followed by "Venice Burning" and "Confronting The Devil" by Wehrkamp/Cadden-James. However, the "real" MullMuzzler2 disc starts only with Track 4 - Matt Guillory's charming song "Falling", which immediately wins the listener over with its immaculate melody and arrangement. LaBrie's voice fits in almost perfectly. The remaining Guillory tracks are of the same superb quality, so I really wonder why tracks 1-3 had to go onto this CD. The MullMuzzler guys have found their very own style by now! Matt Guillory has become the shooting star of my favorite prog songwriters, and I hope that we will hear much more work of him in the future.

James LaBrie is one of the most talented vocalist that I have heard in recent years. His training in opera has given him a great set of pipes. And his recent work with projects outside Dream Theater has allowed him to expand his already diverse discography. And this latest work with his side group MullMuzzler is one of his best performances to date.

I really liked their first album, especially the Trent Gardner songs. "As a Man Thinks" is still one of my favorites. I was disappointed to not see many Gardner songs on this album. And I thought that this album was too heavy for my taste. But only at first. It wasn't until I caught myself singing part of "Tell Me" to myself that I realized how catchy these songs are.

Yes, this album is heavier than the first, but that is not a bad thing. The collaboration between LaBrie, Gardner, Matt Guillory, Bryan Bellers and the Mikes (Mangini, Keneally and Borkosky) is very clever, and they play very well together. Very well. Mangini and Beller have some absolutely sick grooves on these tracks.

Sure, it might have taken a few listens to really get into it, but what doesn't? You put this much talent together, and you'll never have to doubt the results. All you have to do is sit back and listen. But listen a few times before you make any judgements. For we already know that "one who silences an individual's thought before it can be expressed in any matter" is, by definition, MullMuzzler.

I enjoyed the first release. When I learned about this CD coming out, I was excited. When I listened to it the first few times, I was crushed with disappointment. I expected more from Mr LaBrie and his songwriting partners.

That was a few months ago.

Now I can't get the last track, "Tell Me", out of my head! Something about the keyboard arrangement... It's very powerful stuff and it encouraged me to listen to the CD again. I've since bumped up my rating from 3 to 4 stars on the strength of just a few tracks, including "Falling" and "Save Me" as well as "Tell Me", that really shine.

It's hard for me to tell whether James is losing some of his vocal range after all these years of touring with Dream Theater, and certainly the announcement that Mullmuzzler will open some dates wouldn't help him regain his chops. Hopefully by now that idea has been withdrawn. But on this recording, as with the latest DT release, he's singing in a much lower range which is clearly better for him, a stronger range, one that he can sound more confident and well-toned. This makes him sound a lot better and more natural than in his earlier work, including the first MM release.

This recording highlights James and the keyboards, although guitars and drums are very important to the writing and execution. I found most of the tracks (basically, tracks 4-10) to be very listenable and even memorable.

I recommend this CD to anyone who likes their music a little more textured than the standard industry fare. It is, as my title says, surprisingly tasty to your ears.

LaBrie carries a strong name with his association with Dream Theater. I did not suspect such a quality album. The musicianship is on par if not better than dream theater. Mike Mangini is an excellent drummer and very technical. This is obvious with his past work with Steve Vai, and Keneally is no slouch as well, formely of the Frank Zappa camp. But this is not a shred for shredding's sake kind of album. It posses ten well written and meticulously executed songs. It contains some killer ballads as well as some progressive cuts. Just check out "Stranger" this could be on any dream theater album. It has a tricky rythm as well as what sounds like to be a Sheranian inspired keyboard line. It has great dynamics as well as start-stop rythms. Obviously the most progressive song and probably my favorite. The overall album just has a great sound with a clean and powerful recording. It offers up some diverse cuts but has a continuous feel to it, in that the songs fit very well together. Words can only tell so much, I recommend this to any Dream Theater fan or Progressive rock fan. It is a must have.

when you listen to progressive artists such as dream theater, when one of their members put out a solo album, you have to expect two things, to remain in the same vain or to change to another style, obviously keeping the escence of your roots, well with this second effort from dream theatr`s vocalist James LaBrie, you got the second thing, because he decide to take some chances and prove the world what his capable of.

with mullmuzzler, Labrie gaves his voice another dimension, he decide to kept the vocals so clean to show the range and power of his voice, giving during the whole 50 minute album a very versatile and expressive vocal range. so for those who love vocalist who can change his vocal espression from song to song, and give us with his melodies, intense feelings, i have to recommend this new album.

but if you are a progressive fan, maybe you`re not going to get what want, because during this amazing album you listen more often to melodic songs, such in the vain of sacrifice (from the first mullmuzzler album), not the kind of songs from any dream theater`s albums; this album contents incredible melodies, and music, perfomed by so talented musicians such as mike mangini, and matt gillory, who gave the album a contrast from progressive to melodic.

in this album you can feel the escence of the collaboration of magellan`s Trent Gardner, who also works in the first mullmuzzler album, this second album keep the vain form the keep it to yourself album, an also few things from the Leonardo da Vinci`s "the absolute man" project, who combine efforts of james and trent, so if you are lookin that kind of albums, well you just find it with this mullmuzzler2 album.

so let`s make a conclusion for the album: if you want to listen a new dream theater album, well maybe you`re gonna get a little bit disapointed, cause this album is not a prog one; but if you want an album that mixes rythm, sort of prog style, great lyrics, and most of all torrid ballads such as listen, belive and falling; give a chance to this album, i can say you`re gonna love it, just take a chance and i can assure you`re going to dig this beat. and of course for all the fans of dream theater this album is a Most..

There's something about LaBrie's Mullmuzzler albums. After only listening through the album for the second time I could already tell that the feeling of the entire album was going to be in a very similar vain of the atmosphere offered up by the first installment of Mullmuzzler. Driving drums, haunting piano, unison synth/drum combos and guitar riffs that don't give up... all can be found in both Mullmuzzlers.

Powerful choruses broken up by driving bridges and laid back verses best characterize the song structure. Just when you think it's getting formulaic, though, they blindside you with a great phrase you couldn't have seen coming. The technical ability and playing prowess are definitely expressed, maybe moreso than in Mullmuzzler 1.

There's just something soothing, almost melancholy, with most of LaBrie's melodies and harmonies. The album really picks up with track 2 and doesn't let up for the duration of the disc. I will say the first track leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. LaBrie's lyrics in this song seem forced and almost nonsensical. The rest of the album makes up for this bad track, BY FAR. If you liked Keep It To Yourself, this album is definitely worth checking out!

a great CD.

james voice sounds excellent, mike manginis drumming is simply amazing. all other instruments and production were well done.

if you have frameshift (unweaving the rainbow) and DT (awake) this CD is sort of a blend between the two. One thing to keep in mind is that this is not DT. this is obvious after just a quick listen to the CD, that however, doesn't mean it is bad...

GREAT CD