Rez

Item: Civil Rites
Author: Doug Van Pelt

Civil Rites

(1991)

Reviewed by Doug Van Pelt

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Label Grrr RecordsHeaven's Metal #32November 1991

blues rock classic rock hard rock

REZ plays a blue collar man's rock. It's good to listen to while you're workin'. I was on my back porch recently, assembling a shelf unit, and I put the latest REZ disc on. At first listen, I thought, "Gosh, these folks are real hard rock dinosaurs, yet further listens uncovered some real-live youthful energy. Continuing in the vein of the rousing Innocent Blood album, these tunes lay low in a heavy blues rock with that lovely amount of grit and distortion. There's no tunes here that stop you dead in your tracks and leave you speechless (save for maybe "Lincoln's Train") and you won't find a riff here that hasn't been rehashed and used before, but it's got attitude and, to steal a line from The Pig, it gets your "feet to movin' and your soul to groovin'." One pleasant surprise is the melody lines written for Wendy Kaiser's vocals on tunes like "Death Machine" and "Comatose", which sound like they belong, not strained or out of her strongest range. "Players" begins with the plodding low end reminiscent of Pink Floyd's "Dogs Of War", and sports some cutting lyrics concerning young love and lust games: "If love is a teacher, why's it so hard to learn? Tell me, is it better to marry than to burn?" "Lincoln's Train" is the album's highlight, much in the same vein as "Shadows" from Heaven And Hell, except this one leans harder to the acoustic end. It's about a black man watchin' Lincoln's casket-filled train go by and wondering why he's still no freer today than he was before the Civil War. Very moving. "Hotfootin'" lives up to its name, sweatin' out good ole blues rock a la Aerosmith—using some mean harmonica and pitting Glenn's voice against Wendy's to achieve a spicier texture. The Jefferson Airplane classic "Somebody To Love" is covered here with Wendy taking full control of the old hit and breathing fresh passion and grit into it, yet the shrill high end of the original still sounds better to these ears. "In My Room" is a cool ballad with some excellent acoustic pickin' and lead playin' that would command a guitarist's attention with respect. Glenn pouts about the four-walled prison cell that a child in a fighting family's bedroom becomes. Lyrically this song should touch a lot of people due to its universal experience of shutting yourself away. If you haven't had your musical meat and mashed potatoes lately, Civil Rites will getcha your fill.