G(E)NOM – Not My Enemy

Oh boy is this a good reminder not to go judging a book (or in this particular case a CD) by it’s cover alone. By gazing at the plain and gray cover, along with the foggy picture of the “grandpas” on the back, it’s easy to fall under the assumption that the music offered would not be much different. After warily inserting the disc into the CD player, wouldn’t you know, but the darn thing turned out to be a high-spirited affair played by musicians who obviously have a long history and love for Classic Hard Rock. If your uncle, who in his younger years, was obsessed with classic Scorpions, Purple, Gillan and the like, decided to form a band with his mates … this is probably what his band would sound like.

G(e)nom from Germany have released their second album, which can be said to provoke controversial feelings within the listener. At first, the pure energy and enthusiasm that the disc portrays elevates your expectations, but in the end, it does not quite deliver.

Closer scrutiny into Not My Enemy reveals that although it’s packed with contagious energy, it could still use more variety, nuances, and imagination within the song structures. As it is, it’s full of strange repetitive riffs. Do you really need a guitar solo in the middle of every song? G(e)nom seems to think so. After a while, this compulsory pattern becomes tiresome, making the songs only longer instead of richer. The average song length here is close to 5 minutes, and during many of those songs the players seem to get stuck in their repetitive grooves and forget about the listeners. In fact, at some point, the suspicion comes to mind that the singer must be a chain smoker and that the solos are there to give him time to go light yet another cigarette at the show … or possibly the guitarist is a egomaniac demanding equal time for each player on every song … or maybe the whole band is made up of all ‘equal rights for every man’ activists and must demonstrate this on every song. In any case, these pejorative comments show how listening to these songs make it easy to get lost in everything but the music.

The lyrics mostly deal with the experiences of facing the pitfalls and temptations of life, and the wisdom and hope that surviving those can bring. We get tales of war (“Soldier’s Song,” “Not My Enemy”), substance abuse (“Angel Dust”), lessons of relationships(“No Excuse”) and even two songs about rock music (“Rock Hard,” “Hidden Track”), which seem to be aimed to pump up the crowds at live shows.

All of the songs are delivered in vocals vaguely similar to Klaus Meine (Scorpions) by singer Conny Schmitt. The vocals, along with churning guitar riffs and the inspired spirit in which the songs are played, are what stand out here, but even those are not impressive or strong enough to sustain the listeners interest. It’s obvious that G(e)nom themselves are excited about their songs, but it’s difficult to imagine anyone else reaching that level of excitement based on this offering. This CD sounds like it’s aimed to support the live shows and not stand on its own … so original this is not. Inspired? Most definitely. Inspiring? Only when listened to loud at the start of a Saturday night party, or after intoxication has already kicked in!