Customer Reviews

Vertex

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I'm a big Ratt fan and I love all of Stephen Pearcy's work. I heard that he had, a few years ago, branched out and did an industrial metal album which seems very odd to me. When I saw this CD in a music store, it was only 4 bucks so I bought it. I was suprised at how decent the music actually was. The opening track Follow is incredible, very catchy. Synthetic Flesh is another good song. If you are interested in any kind of metal you will probably enjoy this CD. And hey, for 1 cent on amazon, you really can't go wrong.

This a hard cd to review for me. I've only had it for a little while but so far I like about half of it. It's experimental & sometimes it seems to work, other times it doesn't work as well. It would depend heavily on your taste as to whether or not you'll like it. It seems like one of those albums that people will either like or not like with very few saying "it's ok". Ya know?

After a few Albums as ARCADE Stephen Pearcy of RATT did an Industrial sounding album Called Vertex. Not long after this he was in a band named Vicious Delite, Then Fueler, A couple of solo albums later, Then back to Ratt. He is a very diverse musician with many styles including hair metal, industrial, punk, heavy metal and blues. I saw him last night with Ratt on tour supporting the latest album, Infestation. He still has some pipes on him, I enjoy his vocals and his very distinct voice. I love industrial music and was very excited to get this disc. One of my favorite vocalists doing my favorite genre of music is a major plus. The music on this cd is more metal sounding because of the way the guitars are played, but what a fun disc! It's sounds more along the lines of KMFDM or Die Krupps or older Ministry than Nine Inch Nails. When Trent Reznor was headed FURTHER DOWN THE SPIRAL, Spephen Pearcy was experimenting with a more hard synth type of sound. I wouldn't even compare the two. Plus Nine Inch Nails hasn't put out a true industrial album since Pretty Hate Machine. Everything after that has just been angry noise. The Vertex cd is mostly upbeat with one stadium type ballad. Also Vertex uses mostly major metal chords while Trent and pals play minor chords which give his cd's a depressing feel. It's cool to see metal vocalists that I grew up with trying different styles. I also liked the industrial project Rob Halford of Judas Priest did called Two Voyeurs. It was done on Trent's label, but I would listen to it 100 times more than a NIN cd. If you like Stephen Pearcy or Industrial type music, VERTEX won't disappoint!

You'd think that with a lineup that includes former Ratt vocalist Stephen Pearcy alongside journeymen Al Pitrelli and Bob Daisley, the self-titled 1996 album from Vertex would be a high quality melodic hard rock album. Instead, Vertex played techno-influenced industrial rock. That's right, the guy who brought you "Round and Round" is trying to be the next Trent Reznor.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Pearcy would try something like this. It probably seemed like a good way to break from his hair metal past and have some sort of relevance in the 90's. I'm sure part of my dislike for this album comes from the fact that I'm just not into industrial music, but all the distortion in the world can't disguise the fact that the voice singing these songs has no business doing this kind of music. This doesn't seem like an album either Pitrelli or Daisley would touch either, but I guess a paycheck is a paycheck.

Ultimately, I can look past the lineup as long as the music is good, or at least interesting. Unfortunately Vertex is neither. It sounds like a weak attempt at mimicking Nine Inch Nails, but without Trent Reznor's charisma. Unless you're the most die-hard Stephen Pearcy fan, you should probably skip this one.