Mad at the World

Item: Seasons of Love
Author: Phillip Owens

Seasons of Love

(1990)

Reviewed by Phillip Owens

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Label Frontline RecordsHeaven's Metal #26July 1990

alternative rock hard rock

Friends, neighbors, Cabinet members, Mr. President, and countrymen: Mad at the World's long-awaited third album is finally here. For months questions and rumors about the band's radical new look and sound have been rising everywhere. (I thought they were radical before.) The curiosity was killing me, so I grabbed the first cassette of "Seasons of Love" I could find. When I put in the tape - expecting to hear that British accented operatic voice and that "dancing on your grave" drum machine - I thought I was going to drop my teeth on the floor of my Chevy Blazer. Did the drum machine pump out that beat? Did the sequencers kick me in the face? No...what is that sound??? Guitars and live drums...Oh my gosh!! Instantly I could describe it with one word: "different". So, is different bad? Not in this little pig's straw house. The sound is live, raw, and full of more passion than any other MATW release. Maybe I'm behind the times, but I love a band that is not ashamed to say the Name of Jesus; and Roger Rose, the band's singer, songwriter, engineer, and producer, all but spells it out on the title cut. "The voice inside the mind is Jesus telling you that love will see you through again." Highlights include "City of Anger", which describes the price of hate in one's heart, and "Promised Land" (my favorite), where Roger sings about drugs in a way that reveals the form of deception that takes hold of the user. Other greats are "Marshmallow Land" (which I haven't figured out yet), and "The Love That Never Fades", which states that "Love is forgiveness, patience and kindness/ mercy that never fades/ faithful and holy, pure and devoted/ this is the love that God made." Don't dare compare this album with any other MATW release. This one's in a class by itself. With Randy Rose (who sings a couple of tunes) on drums, Mike Pendleton on bass, and Brent Gordon on guitar, Mad at the World is madder than ever. So, take a pig's advice and run out and grab "Seasons of Love" before the love-hunting season is out.