Mick Priestley - Green River Project (CD Review)

01.Dig Your Grave

02.No Return

03.Out Of The Dark Below

04.Flight Of The Bumblebee

05.Nowhere To Run

06.Summer-Presto

07.The Storm

Andy Law - Vocals

Mick Priestley - Guitar/Bass

Alex Martin - Drums

Guest Musicians:

Andy Brook - Keyboard Programming

Adrian Erlandsson - Drums (Dig Your Grave)

Starting off with a slow almost bluesy intro 'Dig Your Grave' then kicks into just about the best damn metal track you'll hear in a long time. Powerfull and anthemic with amazing guitar work that out does that cold lifeless Dragonforce stuff anyday, Mick plays with a real passion and a technical proficiency that is in a masterclass of its own.

Melody and power are the two keywords here for 'No Return', Law delivers an awesome vocal performance whilst the guitar prowess of Mick delivers note perfect with speed and precision unrivaled in british rock today. The song kicks like Motley Crue jamming with Rising Force!

'Out Of The Dark Below' has a slow haunting intro with a catchy little guitar riff mixed in with some vocal sampling. Coming over to my ears like a hybrid of Gothic Power metal, beautiful melodic guitarwork with a strong vocal and superb drumming. The sweeping solo is so fast sounds like mick has 7 fingers on his hand!

'Flight Of The Bumblebee' is an orchestral interlude written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, composed in 1899. Mick gives it his own personal twist with a frantic pace played up to tempo, with nearly uninterrupted runs of chromatic sixteenth notes!

'Nowhere To Run' is catchy as hell with great vocals, reminding me of wednesday 13 on a tech metal trip!

'Summer Presto' is an instrumental which gives Mick another chance to show that he is one of this countrys best guitarists (Herman who??) but, and yes i say it again, with a real passion and understanding that technical ability is only worth listening to when played with passion and that passion comes through the speakers and is as smooth and deadly as a glass of absinthe laced with Laudanum.

The final track 'The Storm' has a classical styled intro with acoustic guitar and keyboard harmony. as to be expected (if not Demanded!) it moves into more energy fuelled fret work. This instrumental again serves as a testament to Micks unrivaled abilities as a true guitar hero.

Stu

Rating: 10/10 

For Fans Of: Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Dragonforce, Symphony X, Paul Gilbert.

Official Website:
www.mickpriestley.net

JULY GIG FLYERS

GREEN RIVER PROJECT, NEMHAIN, THE MERCY HOUSE, ACHILLA Live At The Underworld, Camden 02.04.09 (Gig Review)

GREEN RIVER PROJECT
NEMHAIN
THE MERCY HOUSE
ACHILLA

The Underworld, Camden 02.04.09

ACHILLA
Celebrating one year since their debut performance and their song appearing on the cover mount cd with Metal Hammer magazine, the band hailed as Nightwish meets Opeth take to the stage and spent the next 30 minutes entertaining the small audience.

So there is little to say, the band are good, nice and heavy with very very strong drumming and the vocalist is somewhere between Doro and Tarja.Thing is that the performance lacked feeling, its like they just stood on the stage with no movement, unless you count the slow motion Angela Gossow impressions from the vocalist.

THE MERCY HOUSE
Saw them in a pub last week they were really good, tonight they were on a big stage and they were really fucking awesome.
About half way through the set i noticed that the whole audience area was packed and that everyone was headbanging, dancing and cheering.Their take on classic rock mixed with power metal is an absolute delight, vocalist Drew has an amazing voice that is moving into Michael Kiske (Helloween) territory with a David Coverdale edge.

NEMHAIN
Okay..So Lakis goes to plug his guitar in and there is no sound, thats because the jack into the cab has been broken and fallen inside and guess what?? yep thats right there is no replacement.So i grab a screwdriver and fix the amp within 10 minutes despite being told by someone in charge that it could not be done !

So that solved band return to stage and off they go, the sound is really bad i mean was anyone actually working at the mixing desk???

Still the audience are loving the music anyway (Thank fuck for booze) and have'nt really noticed. Then half way through "Clear My Eyes" the bass goes so i rush around the back find a replacement bass from The Mercy House and get that changed, then the stage geezer says to me only one more song then off, Adrian shouts how long and they manage to pull out 2 more songs with "Second Skin" and "Speed Queen".
So a nightmare gig for sure, but heads held high as it was'nt the bands fault it was shit equipment!

THE GREEN RIVER PROJECT
Mick Priestley's band official debut gig.
They had played one previous gig as part of the Unholy club night with King Lizard as a warm up, which i am told was good but dogged by sound problems.

Hmmm "Sound Problems" so welcome to the underworld home of really crap sound and it does effect their performance.One of the countries most talented guitarists a fantastic drummer and the amazing Andy law on vocals, it should have been outstanding but it was'nt, sure the fans enjoyed what they could hear from the short set but all in all the venue let them and the fans down.

THE GIG ITSELF
This was simply in the wrong place and corners were obviously cut with equipment.But tonight it was The Mercy House who were lucky enough to avoid most problems.

STU


ACHILLA

THE MERCY HOUSE

NEMHAIN

GREEN RIVER PROJECT

APRIL GIG FLYERS

UPCOMING GIG INFORMATION

MICK PRIESTLEY - GREEN RIVER PROJECT DEMO (CD Review)

1.Dig Your Grave

2.Nowhere To Run

3.Summer-Presto

Andy Law - Vocals

Mick Priestley - Guitar/Bass

Andy Brook - Keyboards

Adrian Erlandsson - Drums

Starting off with a slow almost bluesy intro Dig Your Grave then kicks into just about the best damn metal track you'll hear in a long time.

Powerfull and anthemic with amazing guitar work that out does that cold lifeless Dragonforce stuff anyday, Mick plays with a real passion and that comes over on disc just as it did when he played live with Nothin To Lose.

Track two is more of the same and catchy as hell with great vocals, reminding me of wednesday 13, but then how can you go wrong when you have been working hard on something for so long and enlist Adrian to play drums for you?????

The last track is an instrumental which gives Mick another chance to show that he is one of this countrys best guitarists (Herman who??) but with soul.

Gigs, video and much more is lined up for 2009, you need to watch out for this.

To be honest the only thing i dont like about this is the name 'Green River Project' as it gives the impression its some kind of tribute to the pre Pearl Jam/Mudhoney grunge band, though i suspect that Mick may have gone for the serial killer connection, its still confusing and when it comes to promoting the band could cause problems.

STU

Rating - 10/10

Get This If You Like : Yngwie Malmsteen,Steve Vai,Dragonforce