Label: White Knuckle Records
Released: 2007
England’s Voodoo Six prefaced First Hit for Free, due out on March 24th, with this three song EP of their modern hard rock. “Faith” is the teaser’s first and best track. It takes 70s hard rock and filters it through the 90s, largely influenced by Soundgarden’s more mainstream, metally albums. The song isn’t particularly original, but all elements are solid and Voodoo Six injects a fair amount of energy into it. They follow this up with “Feed My Soul” which is no more original, but lacks the previous song’s electricity. The rhythms are lackluster, the riffs are flat and the solo is gratuitous. Like “Faith” though, it does display technical competence even if the songwriting and performance fizzle. “Crawl” splits the difference between the two, bringing back some of the punch of “Faith” without matching it. While I didn’t find the Faith EP to be particularly compelling, it did show that the members of Voodoo Six are entirely competent even if they do struggle to standout. To their credit though, their skills are strong enough that they could be very flashy, yet they show quite a bit of restraint. Their biggest hurdle, even greater than a lack of any real originality, is their sacrifice of swagger for precision. Faith feels like everything is by the book rather than being elastic enough to show the band’s personality.
Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 3/10
Dylan: 5/10
Aretha: 4/10
Overall: 5/10
If you’re curious about my rating categories, read the description.