Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Fozzy
Label: Century Media
Release: 2014
Length: 43:25
Rating: 3.5/5
»Do You Wanna Start a War« is the sixth studio album from American heavy rock outfit Fozzy, who have been fronted since their formation in 1999 by WWE wrestling star and occasional film actor Chris Jericho (real name Chris Irvine). After humble beginnings as a band that mostly played other artists’ covers, Fozzy have spent the past few years diligently building up their status, and with the 2012 release of »Sin And Bones« they earned a deal with the famous metal label Century Media. Lately they’ve also been moving more and more into the spotlight live, since they no longer have to play just as a support act and can now be the main attraction of the night, especially since the big showman and loudmouth Jericho has been devoting less time to his career as a pro wrestler.
Fozzy’s musical approach, as is typical for most of the heavy rock bands in their camp who ‘grew up’ on the ‘old school’ classics, has changed only slightly over the years, so don’t expect any particularly innovative or radically different sonic steps on their latest effort either, and a few generic moments are simply unavoidable. That means that on »Do You Wanna Start a War« they keep playing a mix of classic heavy metal with touches of alt metal and hard rock, with the influences of Judas Priest, Metallica and occasionally Black Sabbath impossible to miss. Fozzy once described their music as ‘what would happen if Metallica and Journey spawned a bastard’, which is still a pretty good way to sum up their style.
Chris’s gritty vocals are still just eclectic and charismatic enough to bring the individual tracks to life in all their drama and brutality, which is an essential quality for this born actor and performer. It’s become something of a tradition for Fozzy to have various established musicians guest on their albums. This time around it’s singer/guitarist Michael Starr (Steel Panther), who left his vocal mark on the track »Tonite«, and singer Christie Cook, who shines on »Unstoppable«.
»Do You Wanna Start a War« is a moody, dark, uncompromising and intense album with plenty of lyrics that are anything but intellectual, which is hardly unusual for beefy, tattooed American patriots raised on hamburgers and genetically modified corn. The song »One Crazed Anarchist« takes its title from the theme music that always accompanied Jericho on his way to the wrestling ring. One of the most atmospherically expressive moments is definitely »Died With You«, where Fozzy pull off the individual melodic harmonies superbly through a masterful vocal performance and show more subtlety than you’d usually expect from them. The previously mentioned hard rock banger »Tonite« boasts an uncompromising guitar riff and a combative yet melodic chorus that can’t leave anyone cold.
»Scarecrow« is another one of the more interesting pieces, marked by an unusual, psychedelic intro, while most of the brutal vocals on individual tracks come from guitarist and producer Rich ‘The Duke’ Ward (Stuck Mojo), who ranks among the big fans of guitar shredding. Among the rare stylistically unpredictable moments of this album is also »SOS«, a pretty interesting cover of the ABBA classic, where Fozzy surprisingly managed to keep the atmosphere of the original, meaning all the melodic elements headed up by the catchy chorus, and then pumped up the drama even more with distorted guitar passages, which Ward doesn’t hold back on anywhere across the whole album.
As long as Chris Jericho enjoys being a musician more than being a wrestler, Fozzy will keep cranking out solid stuff like »Do You Wanna Start a War«, a surprisingly varied album by their usual standards, proving that their sonic evolution is slowly but surely moving forward, even if the more demanding listeners will quickly get tired of the generic feel and hard rock clichés that rule most of the compositions. All the longtime Fozzy fans will undoubtedly be happy with what they hear, while plenty of classic metal and hard rock lovers will find lots of interesting moments too, as long as they don’t mind some pretty worn-out songwriting and instrumental tricks.
Line-up
Chris Jericho – vocals
Rich Ward – guitar, backing vocals
Paul Di Leo – bass
Frank Fontsere – drums
Billy Grey – guitar
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Michael Starr – additional vocals on “Tonite”
Christie Cook – additional vocals on “Unstoppable”
Production
Rich Ward
Track list
1. Do You Wanna Start A War
2. Bad Tattoo
3. Lights Go Out
3. Died With You
4. Tonite
5. Brides Of Fire
6. One Crazed Anarchist
7. Unstoppable
8. Scarecrow
9. No Good Way
10. SOS
11. Witchery
