Daredevil/Pod People -The King/In The End

Fri 22nd Apr, 2005 in Music Reviews

I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But it’s human nature to form first impressions, and it must be said that the Daredevil / Pod People release was not rating highly from the onset. Cool artwork by Ray Ahn (Hard On’s) and decent websites only just make up for the CD presentation. But of course, back to the music.

The release contains a single by Daredevil, and a second track by old touring friends of the band, Pod People. The split release comes off a 7” vinyl, of which only 400 copies were made. So, the CD I hold is lifted from vinyl, and may be the reason for the questionable audio. Or not.

Daredevil’s track, The King has a pretty catchy riff which pulsates throughout, and is not unlike the one in Marilyn’s Mansons’ The Beautiful People. There is an interesting blues guitar moment towards the end which brings the temperature down before culminating in a true rock onslaught.

The Pod People track In The End is less interesting. The guttural and monotone vocals drown out the music, and the clash of guitars and drumming don’t really lead anywhere. ‘70s inspired guitar solos are added to make up for the lack of structure in the song.

In their own words and capital letters lifted from their bio, Daredevil play ‘BIG DUMB ROCK!’, and I couldn’t agree more. I do feel that both bands would be much better live with a cranking sound system, but on this record they just sound like average attempts at re-living rock, metal and punk hero days from the ‘70s and ‘80s.