BRIDES OF DESTRUCTION – Here Come The Brides

Brides of Destruction (BoD) is a new quartet with an almost all-star lineup: Nikki Sixx – Bass Guitar (Motley Crue), Tracii Guns – Guitar (L.A. Guns and founding member of Guns ‘N’ Roses), Scot Coogan – Drums (Parade of Losers and a host of other bands), and upcoming talent London LeGrand – Vocals. Throw in the production talents of Steve Bruno (Metallica and Guns ‘N’ Roses) and a top notch label in Sanctuary Records – seems all the ingredients are present for an innovatively spectacular Heavy Metal debut album, doesn’t it? Well, not exactly…

Here Come The Brides emits a curiously unique sound that combines “old school” Punk Rock with garage band Heavy Metal — Punk Metal, if you will. The music is played fast and aggressive (usually), but not completely out of control. There’s a purposeful feel of mayhem to the cohesiveness of the music, and a more-than-subtle hint of hostility. Overall, virtually every song has its discombobulated musical share; however, each song also has its moments of musical genius…and we should really expect no less from seasoned Metal veterans such as Sixx and Guns, right?

Guns performs admirably within the focus of BoD’s Punk Metal sound, delivering straightforward and honest riffs, licks, and solos in Joe Perry (Aerosmith) and Keith Richards (Rolling Stones) fashion. There’s nothing spectacular or particularly eye opening about anything heard by Guns within this CD, but his performance is consistently good and simplistically innovative (though oddly understated from a production standpoint at times)…definitely the musical highlight of this CD.

Sixx’s bass work is also above average, and adds a lot to the raw edge to BoD’s sound. Similar to his work with Motley Crue, Sixx uses his bass guitar as something more than a filler instrument and provides key direction for the structure of each song.

The percussion work is less stellar by Kris Kohls (appears on 4 tracks) and comes through a bit too subdued, but Scot Coogan’s power-playing style melds quite well with Guns and Sixx and successfully rounds out BoD’s mildly hostile temperament.

The problem with this BoD effort lies with London LeGrand’s performance, and the tools he was given to work with – more specifically, the lyrics. LeGrand, a virtual unknown in the Metal industry, indeed has some talent, but his voice is often mixed in too prominently, thus causing the listener to lose focus on the music. Normally, it’s best to direct listeners’ focus towards the strength of the band – in this case: the music – but instead, BoD makes the unfortunate mistake of jam-packing each of the 9 songs on Here Comes The Brides with an inordinate amount of tepidly angry lyrics sung in 9 different vocal styles, by and large at too high of a volume. Additionally, all of the songs (except maybe “Life” and “Only Get So Far”) start to make strides lyrically into the throes of making a point or telling a story, only to fizzle on their initial direction and/or a sustained coherent plot.

LeGrand shows he legitimately is capable of heading up this band when he bellows out truly enjoyable vocals on both “Life” and “Revolution.” There’s a definite Axel Rose feel to his chorus style in “Revolution,” in particular, that works and makes this the most memorable track on the CD. “Life” shows BoD can indeed maintain a lyrical direction throughout a song AND can simultaneously deliver these lyrics via enjoyable vocal presentation. Each of the other songs, however, either have LeGrand coming through at various junctures in an obnoxiously forward fashion, or has him trying to hold extended notes that he’s not capable of maintaining. These vocal shortcomings, regrettably, cause otherwise solid songs to fail to reach their true potential.

Here Comes The Brides is one of those CDs that I really tried to get into because BoD is a band that you WANT to succeed. With names such as Sixx and Guns joining forces, the logical first thought is: “Here’s a band that possesses the tools to really make a musical statement; and has the clout to make a significant positive impact on the industry as a steward for Heavy Metal.” After 10 listens or so, the album did grow on me a bit, but the end realization is BoD’s failure to close the loop on its lyrical structure and LeGrand’s consistently inconsistent vocal style cause the Here Comes The Brides nuptials to land with a somewhat listless thud.

BoD has contracted to release 3 albums with Sanctuary Records…we can only hope that future efforts result in all of this talent getting on the same page and delivering a product that’s up to the full potential of its members. One last thought – I know doing so might oppress the vast contingency of vinyl customers that still may be out there, but offering more than 38 minutes of music next time around would be a nice gesture too!