Artist: Devil's Slingshot
Label: Mascot Records
Release: 2007
Behind the name Devil’s Slingshot hide three superheroes, the kind of guys without whom rock would never have become so popular when it comes to winning over the masses through the sheer spectacle of explosive stage shows, through a pure, unbridled march at supersonic speeds and an assault of truly Herculean force whenever it’s time to play flat out, while the instruments, mere toys in the hands of these titans, squeal under the work of their muscles and the kneading of their fingers. On top of that, the experimentation factor, which we can thank for the basic, hardwired “screwiness” of all three players in Devil’s Slingshot, is that much-needed pointer on the scale that actually makes the album “Clinophobia” scandalously appealing.
The brand-new lineup of Virgil Donati (drums), Tony MacAlpine (guitar) and Billy Sheehan (bass) got this album out of their system right away. That album is “Clinophobia”. A fear of sleeping. Where the hell did that come from? Most of the ideas for “Clinophobia” came from Tony MacAlpine and Virgil Donati. Keeping the whole thing from coming off, melodically, like a MacAlpine studio album is mission impossible once you rope in Sheehan and Donati. “Clinophobia” delivers 40 minutes of music, which is more than enough, since the album takes a lot of listens to really sink in under your skin. It’s a tough bone to gnaw on, because it’s often fragmented in its motifs and very, very hard to get a grip on for any casual listener, even though there’s not a speck of “pounding away and wasting notes for nothing” here. MacAlpine brings most of the album’s listenability and “logic” in his motifs. That goes for the harmonies he lays over the metal-furious riffing, as well as for the direct punch of the riffs. Sheehan didn’t contribute a single motif to the album “Clinophobia”. Instead, he simply patches the whole thing up with the exceptional know-how of long years of experience and routine, riding on the wings of a unique, top-shelf, artistic approach to technique.
The amount of unpredictability is extraordinary, and it’s mostly Donati and Sheehan who bring it to the face of Devil’s Slingshot. Donati keeps throwing dizzying leaps into the choice of rhythmic accompaniment, through progressively broken transitions that follow one another totally out of the blue, yet the trio never lose their focal point for a moment, so intense is the way the musicians sense each other. The feeling of spontaneity on this album is one of its biggest charms. It stands out most intensely on the album. It’s seriously captivating, making “Clinophobia” incredibly appealing, the kind of record where the excitement, the surprises and the enthusiasm for the material simply never run dry. And that’s on top of the force the trio conjure up when they play flat out. The core of the content is aimed at the metal riff, generated by MacAlpine’s inflammably supersonic fingers. The record rolls dynamically through many different moods, especially in the subtle passages, where Sheehan’s famous slalom shines. The sound of the album is direct and raw. Most of that liveliness comes from the rhythm section, especially Sheehan’s metallic tone, the preserved “licks” and the rasp of the strings during his fingerstyle picking. The sound is only partly filled in with maximum contrast for the trio: it’s aggressive, chunky and rough-edged. No cosmetic tweaks, none of the methods known to plastic surgery.
Sheehan leaves an intense stamp on the album with his thick “groove” and his signature standard sound, which, thanks to the clanging, jangling harmonies, sounds as if two bassists were playing at once. Sheehan underlines a touch of darkness and drama, which works especially well in the calmer to mid-tempo passages, where he uses the space to bring in melody that doesn’t shy away from the experimental realms of the transcendental and the psychedelic. This time around Sheehan is once again the same old spontaneous Sheehan, only now combined with MacAlpine’s guitar, unlike the Niacin story, where his bass searches for a dialogue with the Hammond B3 organ. Donati is the indestructible machine that drives the work of the bassist and guitarist and breathes soul into Devil’s Slingshot. His playing is at once filigree-fine, compactly powerful in its noisy effects and breathtaking in the ingenuity of its improvisational touches.
The opener Nederland, like Flamed toward the end of the record, is tailor-made for fans of the frontal assault of heavily distorted sounds, since they’re especially direct and aggressive in their metalized racket. Rhythmically they’re underpinned by a clattering accent that brings to life the staggering, clumsy gait of a raging dinosaur who, while grazing, accidentally wandered into a patch of “primordial chili peppers” and, the glutton, unwittingly and unintentionally overate, and now he’s bursting with unbearable writhing. Madness, and in this case Virgil Donati is the chief culprit. After Nederland the guys stage a somewhat more controlled picture in Balade de Bastille, marked by the epic main motif that gives the song a touch of solemnity, which we don’t find again in the rest of the album’s running time, with Hourglass coming closest. Def Bitch Blues is Tony MacAlpine through and through. As in, you can feel Tony the most in it. The song is a proper gallop with a fluid, flowing basic riff motif, and the trio ride it firmly in the saddle. It’s a song made to underscore Formula 1 race inserts. The lovable Lay Off, as a composition, is especially loaded with the charm of an unpredictably spontaneous development, with a jerky string of rhythmic/motivic turns. In the exploratory, experimental Injustice Line, the rhythm section steps into the spotlight again. Here the guys literally search for the notes between the notes, and the song leads the album in psychedelic atmosphere and brittle fragmentation, brought on by a heap of dizzying rhythmic turns and the cosmic slalom of MacAlpine’s single-note lines. In the very next moment the guys step closer to brain logic and ratio again, as they carry on with the “delicate” Ocean. With MacAlpine’s chosen harmony and finer sonic control, it’s not hard to picture a gentle breeze playfully strolling above the waves, followed by a perfectly transcendental calm, until Sheehan suddenly digs in with full intensity, with a dizzying tornado of rapid-fire notes, staging a true furious sea hurricane.
“Clinophobia” is a new winning formula, in which the trio of Devil’s Slingshot breathe with equal expressiveness, without a shred of inferiority among them. The album is a must for fans of all three musicians. It’s an album shot through with a creative element that, in the courage of its adventurism and constant free-spirited experimentation, creates a magic of its own, a musical image you won’t find anywhere else. Technically complex and demanding, yet on the other hand “Clinophobia” flows nicely into the ear. It’s also a fortress that’s hard to conquer and demands many listens, but with the enthusiasm it unleashes, it’s hard to get tired of it, if at all.
Lineup
Tony MacAlpine – guitar
Billy Sheehan – bass
Virgil Donati – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Bunny Brunel – drums on track no. 8
Production
Devil’s Slingshot
Track list
1. Nederland
2. Ballade de Bastille
3. Def Bitch Blues
4. Lay Of f
5. Injustice Line
6. Ocean
7. Flamed
8. Hourglass
9. Aerial Perspective
Running time: 40.10
