Posted on: April 21, 2009 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

With a hint of Motorhead poking its turtle head out of “Six Feet Underground”, the slightly middle-ground of the opening track primes the listening base for the rest of the CD. Each cut on the disc is so similar to the tracks immediately around it that a certain type of cohesion is created; however, the lines are blurred between tracks to a degree that it becomes hard to delineate specific songs. Still, there are some interesting vocal inflections to be found during “Bright Red Violent Sex”. The sing-songy nature of the track moves far ahead of the relatively pedestrian instrumentation that backs it up. Taking two incredibly different styles of vocals for “Bullseye” (Ozzy meets the lead singer of Nickelback rapping), the instrumentation really begins to take a little more dignified of a role, actually changing up time signatures to match more convincingly with the band.

It is only during “Guns Ablazin’” that Bobaflex’s wide appeal finally makes sense; hints of progressive metal mix with an audible bass a la Les Claypool to make a metal track that successfully recalls the early nineties without sounding like an Alice in Chains rip-off. The theatric metal is something that becomes a thread that runs through the second half of “Apologize For Nothing”; while the first tracks are really testing the water and providing listeners with easily-digestible pap, tracks like “Got You Trapped” is a tight-rope act of diverse influences, some of which individuals would not normally put together. Couple that with intelligent and well-positioned playing by the entirety of the band and one gets an exciting album. Where Bobaflex really distinguishes themselves from the masses of unoriginal and tepid metal bands is during tracks like “Guardian”, where the band can toy with listeners by going into grooves that may sound similar to those current darlings of the metal scene (Ozzy, System of a Down) but soon after do a completely surprising one-eighty.

Throwing in a hint of Frank Zappa at different moments (Don’t Lie Down With Dogs), the spontaneous nature of Bobaflex is the most endearing facet of the band. When one listeners to the disc for the first time, there is no telling what will come through the speakers. So many bands, metal or not have sated themselves with playing the exact same style of music for years and decades. Bobaflex blasts all of these pretenders out with a fresh blast of air, and while each of the tracks can make it to Clearchannel and the like, it is on Bobaflex’s own terms that they come through that way (and most definitely not in an over-zealous producer like Bob Rock).

Top Tracks: Rescue You, Bullseye

Rating: 8.8/10

Bobaflex – Apologize For Nothing / 2005 TVT / 12 Tracks / http://www.bobaflexwarriors.com / http://www.tvtrecords.com / Reviewed 18 August 2005

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