Rex Carroll and I were talking recently and I brought up the subject of his second trophy for the "Guitar Hero Award" he won this year. He said something like, "I'm glad to receive all the awards I can now, before Tony Palacios wins 'em all next year." Well, Rex and Tony better watch out for a guy named Dennis Cameron.
Dennis' band, Angelica, features great commercial metal songwriting with some blazing guitar licks all over it.
The guitar licks aren't the only excellent thing about this album, either. The vocals are as outstanding as the guitar licks. If you weren't able to get ahold of the import record Intense Defense by Joshua, you can hear the brilliant, crystal clear vocals of Rob Rock on this album. Rob does a great job throughout. Ken Tamplin, who produced the vocals for this album, adds his own voice in the album's closing number--"Face To Face".
Dennis tells me that they originally recorded Ken's vocal track on this song as scratch. They were giving Rob a break on his vocals one morning and Dennis put Ken in the booth to record a scratch vocal track, so Rob would know what to do when he sang it. Well, it turned out so well that they kept it. Ken's lower register fits the song well.
"Are You Satisfied" has some really good lyrics about a subject that needs to be addressed. "Are you really happy/and are you satisfied/We were once the same/when we called upon His Name/ Was the calling just too hard/for you to stay/ Now open your eyes/to the world and all its lies/ Forsaken the cup from which you drank/ Seven wonders/seven wishes/seven ghosts in you." Whoa! There's some scriptural exhortation and insight here for anyone who's walked away from the Lord.
My goodness! This album is outstanding! Songs like "Only A Man" and "There's Only One Hero" are bursting with the energy and skill of a guitar master. His guitar tone is nice and clean on the high end and he proves he can get a punchy, low distortion sound in songs like "Face To Face" and the intro to "Will I Ever Learn".
"Take Me" has a real good hook, some nice rhythm guitar lines, searing leads and a commanding vocal job well done by Rob Rock. One listen to this guy and you'll wonder if there's any better vocalists in Christian music.
Apparently, Rob is working on his own project, and thus is not officially joining Angelica. "Rob came in at the last minute as a favor," says Dennis. Andy Lyon, vocalist and songwriting partner, has not worked out as a vocalist for the band. Musical differences was cited as the reason. Anybody who can sing great: listen up! Angelica is now auditioning lead singers! While we're at it, they can use a keyboardist also.
Dennis basically had the chore of gathering players for this project right before studio time. The Lord hath provided. The "Angelica puzzle" that Dennis had before him has turned out to be a nice piece of art.
Guitarists will enjoy hearing "Ahh!", an instrumental that shows off more of the wow and flash of Dennis' guitar playing. Satriani and Vai are close comparisons to this complex, jazz-influenced, superfast riffing.
Here's the final word on this album: Go out and buy it. Trust me. This one's hot. This album may be the year's sleeper, creating a buzz and generating sales like the first Whitecross album.