Customer Reviews

Spells of Fear

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is Joey Belladonna's sophomore follow up to his Self-Titled album. It was put out in 1998 (3 years after the S/T album). I think the S/T album Belladonna put out was better than Spells of Fear. If you made me describe this to you I'd say, it sounds like early Anthrax. Joey plays drums on this and it is quite good, although the guitars are not as good as they could be. Still it is good thrash/Thrax style metal, giving a good ol' feeling that metal is still around. I guess joey is working on a new album and his website, which is (type in his name).com has more information about this album that I have.

1. Face You Listen Listen
2. Lost Control
3. Long Way Down
4. Bad Memories
5. Jokin'
6. Phony
7. I Don't Need
8. How Would You Know
9. Ultimate Threat
10. Don't Pin Me Down
11. Cover Me
12. Out of Gas
13. Stress Your Mind

WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT THIS ALBUM: Joey's voice is [thankfully] not cleaned up and gives the band a more "raw" feel sound. There are, although too short, some good guitar riffs in some of the songs as well.

WHAT'S BAD: To start off, being that there's a "raw" feel, Joey's voice fills in way too much of the music. Seriously, within 5 seconds after a song starts, his voice kicks in and practically fills in almost every second, with the exception of the [exactly] 30-second guitar section 2/3 into the song. And, almost every single song follows this tired formula. Hey Joey, how about stepping away from the mic now and then and letting some of the guitar work come through, like in earlier Anthrax? At least that would have been better. Joey tries too hard and as a result, the album is much too formulated to be a good raw album, and not polished enough for radio airplay. This falls into a useless void, where nobody wants to listen and nothing sounds great...PASS ON THIS SLEEPER...

This Album Rocks !
Joey's vocals are hot, Stet Howland Kicks it into high gear with his Sick LiX !! A must for every Metal fan out there!!

Same as his first release, Belladonna's solo stuff (like new Anthrax) lacks the character they both had when a unit together. His voice is still great, and I might prefer this to, say Anthrax's Stomp 442 album. Ho-hum, though.

I love Joey Belledonna's voice and his first disc was excellent... on par w/ Anthrax. This, however, lacks any of the strength or spirit that it's predecessor displayed. The production was muggy, the writing and playing uninspired, and even Joey (like the rest of the album), seemed to be unfocussed.
Luckily, Joey Belladonna is just about ready to offer up a new disc which is rumored to be more along the lines of is first release... one can hope anyway. At least it's not as bad as the new Metallica!

I bought this POS thinking it would be like Anthrax. What I got was a horribly produced recording by 2nd rate musicians.