As requested, here’s the Remastered & Reloaded version by Rock Candy Records of “For Madmen Only“, the amazing debut CD from Texan quartet ATOMIC OPERA. Laying down a sound that was thick and boisterous but embedded with subtlety and intelligent progressive arrangements, the band mixed these musical elements with lots of melodies and traditional hard rock styling.
Originally issued in 1994, “For Madmen Only” looked set to make quite a splash, a breath of fresh air in the dark, depressive grunge era. Its solid and muscular sound garnered the attention of traditional metal heads but also appealed to those whose tastes craved a more contemporary fix.
Combining the aforementioned musical elements, ATOMIC OPERA also characterized their music with neatly arranged and orchestrated vocal choruses (all members contribute), forging their own white hot sound in the fires of prog rock, metal and hard rock.
“For Madmen Only” is a sensory assault, pummelling us with crunchy riffs but also strongly elaborated melodies and insightful, provoking lyrics, and remains to this day, a great combination.
Producer extraordinaire, Sam Taylor’s precise sonic layering helped create the fabulously sinister ‘Joyride’ and ‘Justice’, the killer opening duo.
The excellent mid-range vocal delivery by Frank Hart is very credible and perfectly fits into this riff oriented mix. Speaking of that crunch, the dual-driven guitar sound is the hallmark of these songs. A very heavy rhythm drives the tunes from below while the lead guitar creates intricate melody / solo on top.
‘Achilles Heel’, and ‘I Know Better’ are another two tough as teak, menacing rock songs that stalk you first before taking root in your psyche.
‘All Fall Down’ is propelled by a monster groove, a rare mix of Extreme funk-o-metal and Queensryche, while ‘Blackness’ provides variation with more cleaner guitars.
‘December’ is the closest thing to a ballad on the album, a midtempo with great harmony vocals, being another highly melodic track ‘This Side Of The Rainbow’, a tune with a stupendous atmosphere.
The remastered sound obtained by Rock Candy is well worth a listen – the new version has a significantly beefier low end punch, especially the bass drum. I remember loving these songs on the original release but the sound was somewhat anemic in terms of low end kick.
The drums in the punchy hard rocking song ‘War Drum’ especially really have a much more impactful presence, and the guitars jump out of the speakers now. I didn’t remember this being such a sonically powerful album in that regard, so the improvements are noteworthy.
I definitely consider “For Madmen Only” one of the best and most original progressive / hard / metal albums appeared in America during the ’90s era. This new remaster takes it to the next level – near perfect.
1 Joyride
2 Justice
3 Achilles' Heel
4 I Know Better
5 All Fall Down
6 War Drum
7 Blackness
8 December
9 This Side Of The Rainbow
10 New Dreams
Atomic Opera – For Madmen Only [Rock Candy Remaster] 2017
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