FAMOUS UNDERGROUND — Famous Underground (review)

FAMOUS UNDERGROUND — Famous Underground album cover Album · 2011 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Stephen
Fronted by ex-Slik Toxik's singer, Nick Walsh, the Canadian hard rock outfit, Famous Underground, is venturing to the dark territory, slashing the chugging heavy riffings of Black Label Society and modern day Ozzy Osbourne, the alternative rant of Nickelback, and a bite of old-school Metallica/Megadeth. Formerly known as Revolver, Walsh and the gang opens up their new chapter under new branding.

"Wasteland" started with an uptempo low-drive distorted guitar, a strong bomb to crack open. "Overdrive" and "Dead Weight" moves forward with a similar shape, good stuffs but then something tell you that the road ahead is gonna be the same. My concern started to bloom when "Love Stands Still" comes up next. The bland and hookless hard rock riffs puts here is too risky of losing the listeners attention as they're veering the album away to boredom. "Bullet Train" and "Mommy Is A Junkie" aren't getting better and only emphasize the songwriting's weakness.

"Forever And A Day" is a nice insertion of acoustical ballad and strangely is one of their strongest tune. "Wheel of Misfortune" luckily regains the momentum, blowing with galloping riffs, for fans of modern hard rock/heavy metal, this one is hell of a good track to listen to. "On Broken Wings" is another balladic attempt, resembles Metallica's 'Nothing Else Matters' at some point. "Necropolis" is struggling to go past the average poles and "Hell To Pay" is better but still not enough to compete with "Wasteland".

Lack of big hooks and similar riffs template in most of the songs can easily steer away potential fans as Famous Underground's eponymous debut contains too many average tracks and only a handful of tracks can be classified as 'great'. A major improvement in songwriting is required for them to boost the quality higher in the next release, but overall, a decent release to please the fans of BLS or modern Ozzy.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

A Sonication Technical Death Metal
OBSCURA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Suns of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion Black Metal
PANZERFAUST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Facilis Descensus Averno Death Metal
SAEVUS FINIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 6 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 6 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 6 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Vengeance [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 6 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - I Need You [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 6 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed