Album Review

Michael Stollaire – Holy Avenger

• 26th Nov 2008

Every music genre has some framework, an idea of what constitutes that style, blues and it’s twelve bars even jazz which thrives on improvisation has a starting point. Rock n roll is no different and using that verse/chorus/solo template many have come up with their own unique take, it was always meant to be a jumping off point, in Michael Stollaires case it’s used as cover.

‘Holy avenger’ uses all the devices of rock and thinly places the instruments in orders that others have previously, and tops it with lyrics which have been overused since time began and expects us to fall for it-we don’t.

Not that every song has to be some genre defining, soul searching walk through an experimentation of the art form; but it does have to be good.

The nonsensical guitar fills, particularly on ‘Just like yesterday’ alongside the guitar solo on ‘Little princess’ stray off into the ether, never making an impact-which could possibly be due to that sound being rendered obsolete 15 years ago.

The guitar is the least of the problems though as every song feels completely unoriginal and worse still it’s played poorly, some of the changes are gear-crunchingly painful-this is just building block, my first rock song.

Lyrically it’s difficult to imagine anyone finding anything in songs about rain turning into rainbows, no matter how powerful the imagery maybe.

Its all sub bar-room boogie and is best illustrated by ‘Island blues’ here is a complete mess of a song that you could only imagine being played by some lounge combo on a cruise ship.

Now it could be said that this is a bad reaction to classic rock, nothing could be further, there is a reason movies always go back to songs by classic artists like Lynyrd skynyrd and the stones, these songs were great when they were written and stood the test of time because they resonated with the listener-it’s difficult to imagine anyone remembering ‘Watch her walk’ past the songs length.

Like taking a long walk to shop only to find it closed is a disappointment ‘Holy Avenger’ wishes it achieved, instead it’s more akin to someone telling you the climax of a film your about to see as you sit down and knocking your popcorn over as it starts.