David Zaffiro's brushes with the big time include membership in Bloodgood during that Seattle Christian metal band's early days and production credit on the first, and unjustly maligned, Holy Soldier album, as well as their second. Although Bloodgood, metaphorically speaking, never lived up to the last half of its name as much as it did the first, the Holy Soldier project was a sonic wonder. "While the band's good," I wrote in a review of that album back in the summer of '90, "I suspect the producer, David Zaffiro (who also takes a co-arranger credit), is responsible for the bright, outgoing nature of the hooks and the engagingly thunderous poundings that make this the metal to own if it's metal you crave."
It's surprising, then, that the production's the only weak link on Surrender Absolute, Zaffiro's latest and otherwise highly recommendable album. A one-dimensionality afflicts the mix and renders the would-be lushness of both the dreamy ballads and the rockers here flat. Perhaps Zaffiro's budget was stringently allotted; that would explain a lot. It's a shame if that's true, though, because these songs and Zaffiro's multi-instrument virtuosity cry out for the VIP treatment.
In fact, the songs and virtuosity evince such strong pop music instincts—"pop" in the broadest sense of the term since Zaffiro delves into everything from '70s prog-pop to RTZ-revisionist-Boston slow stuff and fusionesque instrumentals that actually go somewhere—that after a while the lack of audio depth doesn't seem like such a big deal.
With the exception of "Every Little Thing," a catchy tune but one whose lyrics suffer from a Christianese glibness that's absent from the rest of these songs, each of these songs builds gracefully and confidently into a shimmering mini-cathedral. Sometimes the main factor's the song's theme.
Songs about divorce ("Find My Way"), the fragility of romance ("Carousel"), and a friend's slow dying from AIDS ("Calling Out to Me") have a way of getting even the hardest heart all achy-breaky. But mostly the sense of wonder's accomplished by Zaffiro's meticulous yet unburdensome attention to detail and the plaintive AOR tenor of Randall Waller, the lead singer on every song here that has words. The cover art's even evocative above and beyond the call of marketing.
Here's hoping Zaffiro's work leads him sooner or later into circumstances that are lucrative enough to fund a high profile re-mix of this set and whatever other goodies he has lying around.
3.5/5
Other coverage for this album
Heaven's Metal #38Reviewed by Doug Van PeltRemember when David Zaffiro used to play in Bloodgood? He'd do a smokin' "guitar burn" solo every show that would blow people away. You'd never guess he had mellow music in him...that is, until the third Bloodgood album "Rock in a Hard Place" was released. Since then this man has produced two Holy Soldier records and recorded two of his own. This one is the mellowest of the three, but it's got…