Category Archives: Fozzy
Fozzy – Do You Wanna Start A War [Review]
Fozzy – Do You Wanna Start A War
2014, Century Media Records
Buy the album
1. “Do You Wanna Start a War”
2. “Bad Tattoo”
3. “Lights Go Out”
4. “Died With You”
5. “Tonite”
6. “Brides of Fire”
7. “One Crazed Anarchist”
8. “Unstoppable”
9. “Scarecrow”
10. “No Good Way”
11. “SOS”
12. “Witchery”
Band:
Chris Jericho – Lead Vocals
Rich Ward – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Billy Grey – Guitar
Paul Di Leo – Bass
Frank Fontsere – Drums
Producer: Rich Ward
Fozzy’s sixth album brings them their best first-week sales and highest Billboard chart position yet — over 5,000 copies sold to place the album at No. 54. There was a time when a number like that wouldn’t have gotten you in the Top 200 at all but in this digital age, that’s a pretty good number for a rock/metal band.
For the most part, the album is modern hard rock/metal that could be passed off as Shinedown, Pop Evil or whoever but the band takes a few twists and turns every few tracks. This isn’t necessarily a problem as long as the songs are good but this album is all over the place. Which, I guess, is a symptom of all Fozzy releases. They do a lot of genre hopping and trend-following. On All That Remains, they tried a rap-metal song. On Chasing the Grail, they did a song that sounded like Avenged Sevenfold. With Do You Wanna Start A War has a modern rock radio ballad in the form of “Died With You” but experiments with screamo metal on “One Crazed Anarchist” and then I hear bits of glam rock on “Tonight”. “SOS” is a cover of ABBA.
As I said, this isn’t a bad thing. Do You Wanna Start A War is a pretty interesting listen because of its diversity and the band is employing melodies to a greater degree this time. Chris Jericho’s voice continues to get stronger. His work on their earlier albums was pretty weak and he was probably getting by only on name-value at that point but he’s definitely come along as a vocalist. I would actually rather him focus on music these days than professional wrestling.
14 years after the band’s first release, it seems like Fozzy finally has a spark about them, even if their sound is a bit unfocused.
Highlights: “Do You Wanna Start A War”, “Lights Go Out”, “Died With You”, “Scarecrow”, “No Good Way”, “SOS”
Fozzy – Sin and Bones [Review]
Fozzy – Sin and Bones
2012, Century Media Records
1. “Spider In My Mouth”
2. “Sandpaper”
3. “Blood Happens”
4. “Inside My Head”
5. “Sin and Bones”
6. “A Passed Life”
7. “She’s My Addiction”
8. “Shine Forever”
9. “Dark Passenger”
10. “Storm the Beaches”
Band:
Chris Jericho – Lead Vocals
Rich Ward – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Billy Grey – Guitar
Paul Di Leo – Bass
Frank Fontsere – Drums
Additional Musicians:
Phil Campbell – Guitar (solo on “She’s My Addiction”)
Producer: Rich Ward
Fozzy returns with their 5th album, which is very much a continuation of the quasi-Avenged Sevenfold sound they started going for with 2012’s Chasing the Grail. Heck, they even got M. Shadow’s to do vocals for one of their songs (the lead single “Sandpaper”).
Previous Fozzy albums seemed to do a few really good numbers with a bunch of dreck to fill out the album. Luckily, the good outweighs the bad here. “Spider In My Mouth” is a good A7X sounding numbers where melody meets metal. “Sandpaper” sounds like a Fozzy song. “Blood Happens” has some decent moments but is ultimately not a favorite of mine because it ends up sounding like metalcore at times (complete with metalcore vocals from Jericho… don’t do that again). “Inside My Head” is standard modern hard rock but I like it. “Sin and Bones” is another driving number ready for radio. “A Passed Life” is somber and melodic. Good tune.
Despite the involvement of Motorhead’s Phil Campbell, “She’s My Addiction” is a bit too light sounding. The chorus reminds me of Trixter. “Shine Forever” is a bland modern number that comes across as Tool a bit. “Dark Passenger” is another track with low-key melodic moments and I’m starting to think it’s those moments where Fozzy’s strength really lies. The eleven minute closer “Storm the Beaches” also features those quiet moments but also some thrashy moments that bring to mind Anthrax and yet again Avenged Sevenfold.
Century Media is the fourth label the band has been on. The first two albums were released by Megaforce and they’ve been label hopping ever since. Hopefully they’ve found a new permanent home with Century Media, which is a solid label for metal bands. Jericho stated he thought Sin And Bones was the band’s “black album”, the one that’s going to break them into the mainstream.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that way. The album debuted at #143 on the Billboard and even with M. Shadows “Sandpaper” didn’t chart as a single. Still, despite some criticisms I have about Jericho’s voice), the band itself is writing better songs. Is it the Black Album? Not quite but it’s definitely Fozzy’s best album so far.
Highlights: “Spider In My Mouth”, “Sandpaper”, “Sin and Bones”, “A Passed Life”, “Dark Passenger”, “Storm the Beaches”
FOZZY – Chasing the Grail
Fozzy – Chasing the Grail (2010, Riot Entertainment)
1. “Under Blackened Skies” … 5:32
2. “Martyr No More” … 4:37
3. “Grail” … 5:09
4. “Broken Soul” … 4:09
5. “Let the Madness Begin” … 3:47
6. “Pray For Blood” … 5:12
7. “New Day’s Dawn” … 4:34
8. “God Pounds His Nails” … 4:20
9. “Watch Me Shine” … 3:38
10. “Paraskavedekatriaphobia (Friday the 13th)” … 5:26
11. “Revival” … 4:47
12. “Wormwood” … 13:53
Band:
Chris Jericho – Vocals
Rich Ward – Guitar, Vocals
Sean Delson – Bass
Frank Fontsere – Drums
Additional Musicians:
Eric Frampton – Piano, Hammond Organ, Keyboards
Renny Carroll – Backing Vocals
Jeff Waters – Guitar Solos on “Martyr No More” and “God Pounds His Nails”
Mike Martin – Guitar (“Wormwood”)
Producer: Rich Ward
Five years after their last studio release, Fozzy is back with their fourth release which is similar to All That Remains in regards to the band playing it straight as a metal act that combines melody and heavy riffing. I do think this is a better effort than All That Remains was though and it’s certainly heavier.
They’ve shed the ’80s metal parody/tribute gimmick and for better or worse have an updated heavy metal sound. It’s funny because though they’ve left the 1980s behind, they seem to be embracing the early 2000s with downright nu-metal (“Let the Madness Begin”, “Watch Me Shine”, “Revival”) vibe on a few tracks along with post-grunge (“Broken Soul” could have come from any number of those types of bands) and I even hear bits of Black Label Society thanks to guitarist Rich Ward seemingly imitating Zakk Wylde.
Inspiration seems to be all over the place, which is surprising since Jericho is such an ’80s metal junky. I can’t help but get the feeling that the band is trying too hard to fit in with modern times though. They even took the time to come up the nearly 14 minute progressive “Wormwood” that sounds like something you may hear from Avenged Sevenfold or Dream Theater with it’s shifts between tender moments, blazing solos and heavy riffs. It’s actually pretty good though, so who am I to complain?
I like this album a lot better than when I first listened to it, but like with their previous effort, there’s a lot of filler here and not a lot of focus. Seems like they want to sample a bit of everything. I guess it’s hard to expect a lot of focus from a band that is almost always on hiatus thanks to their lead singer being a full-time professional wrestler (or should I say “sports entertainer”?) who tours the world all year ’round . They should pick one direction and go with it. To be honest, if Chris Jericho wasn’t one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, I don’t think I would have much interest in Fozzy. At this point, they’re really just “there” and don’t standout to me in anyway (I actually think Jericho’s vocals are kinda weak as well).
An okay effort that is probably only worth tracking down for Jericho and Stuck Mojo fans.
Highlights: “Under Blackened Skies”, “Grail”, “Let the Madness Begin”, “God Pounds His Nails”, “Watch Me Shine”, “Wormwood”
FOZZY – Fozzy
Fozzy – Fozzy (2000, Megaforce Records)
Track Listing:
1. “Stand up and Shout” … (3:39)
2. “Eat the Rich” … (4:05)
3. “Stay Hungry” … (2:56)
4. “The Prisoner” … (6:18)
5. “Live Wire” … (3:17)
6. “End of Days” … (3:54)
7. “Over the Mountain” … (4:31)
8. “Blackout” … (3:39)
9. “Feel the Burn” … (4:23)
10. “Riding on the Wind” … (3:10)
Band:
Chris Jericho – Vocals
Rich Ward – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Ryan Mallam – Guitar
Dan Dryden – Bass
Frank Fontsere – Drums
Additional Musicians:
Butch Walker – Guitar, Vocals on “Over the Mountain”
Andy Sneap – Vocals on “Blackout”
Produced by: John Briglevich & Fozzy
Before Fozzy turned themselves into a somewhat serious hard rock & metal band with 2005’s All That Remains, they played the Spinal Tap joke card and did mostly covers on their first two albums.
The concept behind wrestler Chris Jericho and the band Stuck Mojo getting together was that they were a 80s hair band who had been stuck in Japan for the last 15 years and had written all these great songs that were “stolen” by other bands and these are the original versions. Pretty interesting and humorous idea and I remember the band and Jericho getting a lot of press from the Metal Sludge website at the time with the site playing along that this was all legit.
It actually took me a few years to pick this one up, for some reason, despite being a huge Jericho fan and huge fan of 80s rock. Jericho does a surprisingly good job using an “80s metal voice” and hitting the notes on these songs, though he sounds a bit strained trying to measure up to Rob Halford on “Riding on the Wind” (but who wouldn’t, outside of Ripper Owens, that is).
It’s a really fun album and Jericho’s “The new Number TWO!” overacting at the beginning of Iron Maiden’s “The Prisoner” cracks me up.
It’s not all covers though, the band managed to put up 2 original songs: “End of Days” and “Feel the Burn”, both of which have a more modern sound and wouldn’t be out of place on All That Remains. Of the two, “End of Days” is my favorite.
Highlights: “Eat the Rich”, “Live Wire”, “End of Days”, “Over the Mountain”, “Blackout”
FOZZY – All That Remains
Fozzy – All That Remains (2005, ASH Records)
Track Listing:
1. “Nameless Faceless” – 3:28
2. “Enemy” – 4:28
3. “Wanderlust” – 4:14
4. “All That Remains” – 4:33
5. “The Test” – 3:06
6. “It’s a Lie” – 4:26
7. “Daze of the Week” – 4:18
8. “The Way I Am” – 4:10
9. “Lazarus” – 4:01
10. “Born of Anger” – 4:42
Band:
Chris Jericho – Vocals
Rich Ward – Guitars, Keyboards
Mike Martin – Guitar
Sean B. Delson – Bass
Frank Fontsere – Drums
Additional Musicians:
Zakk Wylde – Guitar on “Wanderlust”
Marty Friedman – Guitar on “Born of Anger”
Bonecrusher – Vocals on “It’s a Lie”
Produced by: Rich Beato & Rich Ward
Well, this is quite a departure from covering W.A.S.P’s “L.O.V.E. Machine” and Iron Maiden’s “The Prisoner”. Fozzy decided to stop being a “joke” band and get serious with this album and it ends up with some good results. The hair metal & 80s metal inspirations are mostly gone and in their place is some solid modern heavy metal, alternative metal & hard rock. Most of these songs would song right at home on rock radio. I believe “Enemy” did actually chart for a little bit, and for good reason, it’s the album’s best song. My second favorite would be “It’s a Lie” (even though it’s rap-metal, something I was totally shocked to see Jericho doing).
I still haven’t picked up Fozzy’s 2nd album, Happenstance, but perhaps someday I will because I enjoyed their first release and I enjoy this one as well, even though it took me a while to get into the new sound of Fozzy.
Not sure if I got the band credits correct, I’ve only got the CD on me (the jewel case & booklet are in storage) and I couldn’t find a definitive band line-up for this album online anywhere. If anyone knows any different, feel free to let me know.
Highlights: “Nameless Faceless”, “Enemy”, “The Test”, “It’s a Lie”
Metal Excess 