I still love ALEX GOMEZ'S last album ("Always Never" from 2004) and play it regularly. This second self-released collection of songs "Metallic Blue Electric" is a purified and sharper version of the same elemental blues howl. Where I could hear the echoes of classic blues tunes and riffs in "Always Never", for "Metallic Blue Electric" GOMEZ has boiled away every last drop of sentimental attachment to luxury or comfort. The album is a hard-coiled spring of relentless and angry pain.
Listening two or three times all through I feel bruised and silent. I need to say now – do go and find it. If you have a passion for authentic blues that makes no concessions, and you can stand up drink for drink and punch for punch against someone who makes JON SPENCER look like a club singer, then go for it. GEORGE THOROGOOD would be another name to think about in the "people GOMEZ is tougher than" category.
To recap, the line up is one electric guitar with a bottleneck slide, one kick drum and one over-revving concrete mixer of a voice. The pattern is call and response, switching between guitar and voice, alternating with overdriven guitar-smothered verses. The basic units are a bar or two long, repeated as necessary like rivets on the side of a tank. The songs shudder.
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Lyrically we have male rage, frustration and fantasy: "I said wham, bam, thank you Mam. I don’t really give a damn" is sung with such ferocity that it couldn't be a pose. The titles slam home the message "Cock-a-Doodle", "Pink Rose", Emily", "Sticky Icky", "Natalie", Crystal", "Satan's Daughter", "Can’t I Go On?", "You Can’t Own Me" and "I Believe". If this is a concept album, it’s a basic concept with a very singular object. This isn't playing at demons, these are demons.
"I believe" he screams on that final track, allowing himself just one short chunk of sweeter guitar virtuosity to sing through the slurred vocal delivery. But I don't think he believes at all. I think he knows.
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