Artist: The Green River Project
Title: Demo
Type: CD
Label: Self-Released
You’d be forgiven for immediately lumping this in with the rest of the sleazy cock-rock revival that seems to be going on these days, especially given the band’s ties to uber-sleaze peddlers Nothin’ To Loose, from whose ashes The Green River Project was Born. However The Green River Project is a different beast entirely and on this self-released demo they confidently straddle hard rock, power metal, and even classical over the course of five tracks in fifteen minutes, and they do it with a gritty sneer and technical proficiency.
‘Dig Your Grave’ starts things off with an almost Motley Crue-like ballad riff before diving into some serious shredding accompanied by the familiar battery of ex-Cradle of Filth and current Nemhain drummer Adrian Erlandson that gives a great head banging track, a solid backbone. ‘No Return’ delves into more overt power metal territory with Andy Law’s Vince Neil-a-like vocals keeping one foot on the hard rock ground for the benefit of those who are left-over from the Nothin’ To Loose days. ‘The Flight of The Bumble Bee’ provides a brief, if frantic interlude to proceedings - it’s a bit of Spinal Tap humour just for the hell of it, and why not? ‘Nowhere to Run’ sees another contribution from Adrian Erlandson, and features the heaviest riff on the album and feels the most assertive out of all the tracks. ‘Summer - Presto’ is that same frantic power metal shredding meets classical that permeates most of the tracks in some form or another - I can only assume this is very fun to play live or someone discovered Emilie Autumn’s ‘Laced / Unlaced’ album.
On the whole this is a very promising demo from a band with a lot of talent and plenty of ideas as to use it to the best effect. If you like your guitar shredding, metal stance, high lung capacity wailing, he banging stuff - then this one is for you. As much as this demo excites me now, I’ve no doubt that in a couple of years time I’ll be bemoaning the fact they’re in all the magazines and on all the music channels.
http://www.myspace.com/greenriverproject08
Sean M. Palfrey
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