STUCK MOJO: The Great Revival

Produced by Rich Ward

Released: 2009

Stuck Mojo was probably the only band that did the rap-metal thing properly, a left-wing, politically-charged rage machine of spitfire rapping and crushing metal riffage. Snappin' Necks and Pigwalk were genre-defining albums that made all other groups trying the style look like tryhard losers. In spite of this, Stuck Mojo has always been rather inconsistent and twenty years since they began churning out the grooves The Great Revival shows a band that seems to be at the crossroads. Fact is, this doesn't seem much like a Mojo album at all but a Rich Ward solo issue with his old band's name stuck on it. As the only original member left, this is no doubt his right but Stuck Mojo was always a band people either loved or hated, and those who loved them for being rap-metal may not really care for this. Those who hated them for the same reason may hate them even more now.

The Great Revival begins pretty strongly with "15 Minutes of Fame", classic Mojo built on one of Ward's typically catchy groove riffs that sets the album up as something at least on par with Rising. After that however it becomes a strange hodgepodge of styles that much of the time isn't metal and sometimes is hardly even rock, and while it is bookended with tracks that attack the American fame machine there's almost no politics about this at all. "Friends" is a funk-laced radio rock song with a catchy chorus and some sweet female backing vocals that if given a chance would have "hit" written all over it, but it flies in the face of everything this group once stood for.

"The Flood" is an unusually brooding track with a really heavy, sludgy feel that makes it one of the more interesting cuts and on "Now That You're All Alone" they offer up a nice line in melodic rock with a neat guitar hook. It's not Stuck Mojo, though, and you'll find stuff like this all over Ward's My Kung Fu is Good.

"The Fear" is the fastest and heaviest thing this band has done in a decade but at less than two minutes doesn't really satisfy. Then there's the rewrite of "Country Road" (actually "Take Me Home, Country Roads") that almost verges on a copyright infringement as only the hook is left -- even West Virginia has been dumped for North Carolina! This is so far removed from Stuck Mojo that it's difficult to reconcile it with the name of the band on the cover, like Martin Scorsese suddenly deciding to make a chick flick.

The Great Revival is undoubtedly the most diverse album Stuck Mojo has ever made and probably one of the most varied things from a single artist to have been released this year; however, it doesn't really do them any favours because it is quite simply too different for most tastes. They certainly can't be accused of not trying out a few new things, though.

1. Worshipping a False God
2. 15 Minutes of Fame
3. Friends
4. The Flood
5. Now That You're All Alone
6. There's a Doctor in Town
7. The Fear
8. There's a Miracle Comin'
9. Country Road
10. Invincible
11. Superstar Pt 1 (The Journey Begins)
12. Superstar Pt 2 (The World of Ego and Thieves)

Rating: 45%

FOZZY: All That Remains

Produced by Andy Sneap

Released: 2005

Fozzy started out as a fun-time cover band project for Rich Ward and Chris Jericho but over the years the band has striven to develop a legitimacy as a serious act. Prior to this album, Fozzy was still covering old 80s metal standards, using silly pseudonyms and pretending they were a forgotten early American rock band trapped in Japan for 15 years after a record deal gone wrong. Having now dropped all of these pretences, after almost three years of silence Fozzy returned with its first complete album of original material.

All That Remains features a raft of guests that include Marty Friedman, Zakk Wylde, rapper Bonecrusher, Derek Bonner from Lilitu and two of the guys from Alter Bridge (the band formerly known as Creed) but, sadly, little of the mischievous sparkle of the previous albums. While the originals on Happenstance weren’t too bad, it was the spot-on versions of Scorps, Maiden, Priest, Sabbath and Accept classics that really made the album what it was. This time around, it’s all originals and something just seems to be missing.

That isn’t to say this is a bad album, because it isn’t, and is, in fact, rather a diverse little outing with a mixture of straight up heavy metal and hints of old-school American power metal and even a thrash element cropping up towards the end, where Friedman chimes in for a guest spot in “Born of Anger”. Jericho once again proves himself to be quite a noteworthy vocalist and Ward, as always, wrangles out some truly quality riffage, but All That Remains just somehow lacks the entertainment factor that a band called Fozzy with a wrestler as a singer should possess. “Enemy”, “The Way I Am” and “Lazarus” are actually pretty good songs, but the rest doesn’t hold that well together, especially the rap-metal tune, which is rather surprising when most of this band were in Stuck Mojo.

1. Nameless Faceless


2. Enemy


3. Wanderlust


4. All That Remains


5. The Test


6. It's a Lie


7. Daze of the Weak


8. The Way I Am


9. Lazarus


10. Born of Anger

Rating: 62%