EDDIE OJEDA: Axes 2 Axes

Produced by Eddie Ojeda

Released: 2005

When you think of guitarists doing solo albums, Eddie Ojeda from Twisted Sister is probably not a guy whose name would spring to mind. Ojeda's guitar playing was hardly the most outstanding aspect of Twisted Sister's music, and even in comparison to 80s contemporaries like (dare I say it) CC Deville or Quiet Riot's Carlos Cavazo, he probably doesn't rate that highly. The idea of him putting together an album of his own, then, is surprising to say the least, even if the collection of talent he's gathered around him for the exercise is less so: Ronnie James Dio, Joe Lynn Turner, Dee Snider, Rudy Sarzo and latter-day Sister drummer Joe Franco among them.

Draped in a terrible and terribly uninspired cover (a selection of guitars burning at the stake? Come the fuck on), Axes 2 Axes doesn't hold much promise, and therefore doesn't have much to live up to. Which is just as well, because this is pretty ordinary stuff. The Dioesque "Tonight", with Ronnie James himself on vocals, starts things off rather well. It's a fairly heavy, mid-paced metal tune that goes along all right even if it is completely unmemorable the moment it's over and "Please Remember" with Ojeda on vocals is also OK and in fact sounds remotely like Rainbow when Turner was singing, which originally made me think it was Turner but he doesn't make an appearance until track 11 and I was beyond caring by that stage.

By this point Axes 2 Axes is already an unremarkable album, but after this it really becomes a puzzle as to why it exists at all. The cover of "Eleanor Rigby" with Snider singing (and badly, at that) is just terrible. "Evil Duz (What Evil Knows)" with Ojeda again handling the vocals is heavy enough but lyrically infantile, the instrumental tracks only showcase how average a player Ojeda is and tracks like the awful "The Reason" prove why Dee Snider wrote all of Twisted Sister's material.

I don't really know what Eddie was thinking with this. A way to issue a statement of his own after so long living in the shadow of Dee Snider, perhaps, but Axes 2 Axes is so bad he really shouldn't have bothered.

1. Tonight


2. Axes 2 Axes


3. Please Remember


4. Eleanor Rigby


5. Evil Duz (What Evil Knows)


6. Crosstown


7. Senorita Knows


8. Love Power


9. Funky Monkey


10. The Reason


11. Living Free

Rating: 35%