MYSTERY is an Australian bunch of very young blokes… They can’t barely play even to save their lives and the strategic marketing trick is too big and flagrant to me. Sorry, I would love to say something positive about their album “2013” but I can’t. Nobody can accuse me, with credibility, of being harsh with the young and adolescents wave of Metal groups, mainly because I was always more than friendly, conciliate with TRACEDAWN and even extremely encouraging and supportive to STURM UND DRANG and above all, I was deeply seduced by the talented KISSIN’ DYNAMITE renting and praising them several times and even ranking their last album at number #4 in my final top list for 2012.
But this time, enough is enough, those young Aussies guys aren’t ready to have a professional album on the market, even with the help of STU MARSHALL (DEATH DEALER / EMPIRE OF EDEN / ex-DUNGEON) behind the mixing board: They simply don’t have enough experience and instrumental competences yet, in order to compete on the world wide stage, obviously some others Metal acts deserve to be published instead. Their music is full of clichés and the Hair Metal cheese is flowing like melted lava, but it’s not the worst thing, because I can truly enjoy from time to time an occasional, well-crafted fun tribute to the past, while here in the opposite, the players are quite amateurish but the lead singer is even worse. The gang backgrounds vocals are indigenous and childish, “Nonstop To Nowhere” is one of the most stupid 80s related song that I heard in a long time with a nonsense double tempo gimmick trick.
Sometimes the riffs are quite ok (“Test Of Time”), the lead guitars aren’t bad either but the songwriting is disastrous and the band need a real direction , they are lost with their influences, the teenagers from Melbourne mix everything like oil and water, with no homogeneity at all, indeed they do waste a lot of energy but there is not a single minute of sheer Metallic density. The lyrical side is of course also obviously terrible (“Rock ‘N’ Roll Forever” / ”Raise Your Fist”) But the worst of all, is the DIO cover song “Stand Up & Shout” which is slaughtered and butchered in the real high school party tribute tradition, I mean : A really bad rendition, believe me it’s horrible. In comparison, the MEN AT WORK cover that follows seems to be almost well executed, it’s a shame.
1. 2013: A New Dawn
2. Raise Your Fist
3. Freedom
4. Nonstop To Nowhere
5. Test Of Time
6. On Fire
7. Rock 'n Roll Forever Be
8. Lost In Time
9. Stand Up And Shout
10. Land Down Under
Rocky Ravic – Lead Vocals / Lead Guitars
Kris Iaccino – Guitars / Backing Vocals
Josh Scarpaci – Bass / Backing Vocals
Tony Mlikota – Drums / Backing Vocals
Mystery – 2013 (2013)
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