If nothing else, Sydney Allen Johnson must surely be applauded for his outright display of courage in voicing his rather opinionated views. After stumbling upon his website I discovered his ramblings on the subject of the “Heavy metal KKK”, where he observes an increasing trend for metal fans to treat their musical preference as their religion and accuses the “heavy metal purists” of bigotry towards the chart friendly metal we deem “unacceptable”.
Whether I am inclined to agree with his garrulous discourse or not is a different kettle of fish altogether but he certainly puts forth some valid arguments. Axis Of Evil is the third album from Sydney Allen Johnson, and this is no less a pulpit for his opinions as his weblog. One cannot fault the packaging this CD comes in, with its psychedelic 12 page accompanying booklet which, alongside the lyrics, contains passages from the Qur’an and other sources designed to back up his argument. This is all conceived with a certain level of intellectual merit and once again, his sheer audaciousness in expressing such controversial opinions on a rather taboo subject, in my book, must be applauded. It’s a fairly acceptable thing to do in the world of metal, and even sometimes in more mainstream musical genres, to denounce or mock the Christian religion, but to speak out against Islam in a time of political correctness gone mad does take some guts. Xenophobia speaks out against the influx of immigrants who are crossing into the Western countries and refusing to adapt to our way of life while the government allow this to happen.
If only the music spoke with such pungency as the lyrics, for as much as the lyrics may have one or two folk nodding in agreement, the only thing the music has me wanting for is to nod off to sleep. ‘You Ride, You Die’ kicks off with an industrialized beat that grabs my attention, as Sydney’s authoritative bellow meticulously reads out the lyrics as though they were passages from the bible. This has a gothic sentiment that for a while puts across a certain dark feeling although by the time we get to the third or fourth song and still not a single fluctuation in tonality has arisen, my interest begins to dwindle. The music tails off into a vast ocean of the bland and the lifeless, which simply repeats itself over and over again. Clearly the music is nothing more than a secondary entity used only as an excuse for this man to preach his views, which is what the Babylon Mystery Orchestra is all about. Synthetic keyboard lines meander aimlessly along while the guitar solos are, frankly, laughable. As Sydney states through his internet soapbox, “good musicians are the least important reason to listen to a band”, but while virtuosity can sometimes appear a pointless exercise in self indulgence that holds little appeal to anyone except fellow guitarists, the constant repetition of, what sounds like, the exact same lacklustre guitar solo not only demonstrates a total lack of imagination, but is an insult to the listener. Shouldn’t music be…well, about THE MUSIC?
‘You Ride, You Die’ sparks some initial enthusiasm which rapidly deteriorates and becomes an exercise in patience and clockwatching. The booklet is perhaps worth a read, but I’d give the record a miss. Unless you are in need of a sedative, that is.
http://www.babylonmysteryorchestra.com/home.html
