Courtesy: Steel Cartel
Metal super group The Three Tremors will launch its Spring tour in support of its 2019 self-titled debut album and its companion record The Solo Versions next month. Set to launch March 25 in Hollywood, CA, the tour runs through Apr. 11 in Minneapolis, MN and features performances in cities, such as Clifton, NJ; Denver CO and Waterford, NY. The dates are part of the band’s 2020 Winter/Spring U.S. Tour. Composed of Sean Peck (Cage), Tim “Ripper” Owens (Iced Earth, Judas Priest) and Harry Conklin (Jag Panzer) and fellow musicians Casey Trask (guitar) David Garcia (guitar), Alex Pickard (bass) and Seal Elg (drums), the band has released in its debut album – and its companion record which was released in November –a presentation that stands tall among the way too vast sea of super group records that are out there in this day and age. That is due in no small part to the musical content featured throughout the album. This will be addressed shortly. The album’s lyrical content adds to its overall impact, too, and will be addressed a little later. The album’s production – and that of its companion record – is also worth noting in examining their whole. It will also be addressed later. Each item noted here is important in its own way to the whole of The Three Tremors and its companion record. All things considered, they make both records collectively, two records that are among the cream of 2019’s super group albums crop.
The Tree Tremors’ self-titled debut album, released approximately one year ago to the day through Steel Cartel, is a rarity in the field of super group albums. The album and its companion, which was released in December collectively make up one of the best of the best of the noted crop of new releases. That is due in no small part to the album’s musical content. The album’s musical content will appeal to fans of any of the bands for which the group’s superstar front men have themselves fronted throughout their careers. Each song is full-on power metal at its finest that takes listeners back to the days of Judas Priest’s Painkiller and almost any of Cage’s albums. Garcia and Trask’s dual guitar attack joins with Pickard’s low-end and Elg’s time keeping in the album’s opener ‘Invaders From The Sky’ to make this song a powerful first statement from the group. The collective vocals from Owens, Conklin and Peck add even more punch to that impact. Of course, the isolated vocals from each front man in The Solo Versions make the song even more powerful that it leaves one wondering if the song was maybe too busy with all three men singing on the one song. The group’s collective vocals and musical talents are even more notable throughout the six-minute-plus open ‘When The Last Scream Fades.’ This is a moment in which all three vocalists’ talents compliment one another very well and in which they compliment the work of their fellow musicians and vice versa. What’s more, it is a different style of power metal than that, which is exhibited in the album’s opener, proving even more the importance of the album’s musical content. Much the same can be said of ‘Sonic Suicide,’ that was said of the other noted songs. This song’s arrangement is a slightly slower work and is stylistically different from its counterparts, showing even more variance in the record’s overall musical content. It also displays great thought and work put into the record’s production. That will be addressed later. Staying on the matter at hand, the songs presented here serve to show clearly why the musical content presented in The Three Tremors is important in its own right to the album. As important as it is to the album’s presentation, the musical content featured here is only one part of what makes the record stand out. Its original lyrical content plays its own part in making this super group record worth the time and money.
The lyrical content presented throughout the course of The Three Tremors’ 58-minute run time is varied to say the least. The album opens with a song about an alien invasion. From there, the album leads into a song about vampires in the form of ‘Bullets for the Damned.’ ‘When The Last Scream Fades’ takes on the people who put way too much stock in the book of Revelation while ‘Wrath of Asgard’ goes the Viking route. It’s no Amon Amarth tune, but is still enjoyable in its own right. ‘The Cause’ takes on the matter of the Civil War. ;King of the Monsters’ pays tribute to two metal greats – Ronnie James Dio and Lemmy Kilmister. There is even a song about being in a mosh pit here in the form of ‘The Pit Knows No Mercy.’ ‘Sonic Suicide’ addresses what has become of the founding fathers’ “great experiment.” As the album progresses into ‘Fly Or Die,’ the band takes on the events of Dec. 7, 1941, the “Day which will live in infamy.” ‘Lust of the Blade’ is a song about Jack The Ripper, according to Peck, who conducted an interview last year with Phil’s Picks when The Three Tremors was originally released. ‘Speed To Burn’ takes listeners into the history of America’s “Space Race” with Russia while the album’s finale and title track is one of those self-promoting songs that takes on all of the naysyers who claimed this project could not be done. Peck addressed that issue, too in his interview last year with Phil’s Picks. Again, it becomes visible through all of this that listeners are treated to a wide range of topics and themes throughout The Three Tremors. It would have been so easy for the group to phone it in and just throw in a bunch of standard works centered on politics and relationships (the most common themes of songs from across the musical universe), but instead opted to do something more unique and original. Considering that Cage has presented a whole concept album about astrology and that Judas Priest and Jag Panzer have their own histories of presenting unique topics in their songs, it should come as no surprise that Peck, who wrote all of the album’s songs, went the route that he did here. All of that taken into consideration, the lyrical content featured throughout The Three Tremors proves just as invaluable to the record’s presentation as its musical content. That combined content is not the only thing that makes The Three Tremors so notable. Its production rounds out its most important elements.
Courtesy: Steel Cartel
As noted earlier, The Three Tremors’ opener ‘Invasion From The Sky’ is a powerful first impression on this record. However, when compared to the presentations of The Solo Versions, it sounds a bit muddled. One can’t help but feel that each vocalist’s solo performance in this song is better by itself than collectively. It shows that the Peck and Garcia – who co-produced the album – did their best here, but perhaps should have taken a lightly different approach in that song. Meanwhile, the mix of Roosevelt’s announcement, the sirens and music in ‘Fly or Die’ goes a long way to make that song’s whole stand out very well in its own right. The balance between each vocalist’s line in ‘Sonic Suicide’ is another example of how the production that went into The Three Tremors’ paid off. This is one of those cases in which the original work is actually better than that presented in The Solo Versions. That is not to say that the isolated vocal tracks with the music are any less impacting. As a matter of fact, hearing those isolated tracks makes for its own enjoyment and engagement, but in the bigger picture, they make the final cut presented in The Three Tremors that much more powerful and enjoyable. ‘When The Last Scream Fades’ is yet another example of the importance of the production behind The Three Tremors and its companion record. It presents what is possibly the absolute best balance of elements throughout. Each vocal line is balanced perfectly against the other. They are, in turn, balanced just as well against the work of the trio’s fellow musicians. The whole creates a feeling in listeners that cannot be ignored. It immediately leaves listeners wanting to put their horns high in the air and banging their heads in time. It is just another example of how the work and time that Peck and Garcia put in producing the album (and mixing it) paid off. Keeping that in mind, it makes the combined musical and lyrical content that much easier to understand and appreciate. The end result is two records that audiences will enjoy equally and collectively. All things considered, The Three Tremors and The Solo Versions become, together, a presentation that proves some super group records really are in fact super.
The Three Tremors’ self-titled debut album and its companion record The Solo Versions are collectively a strong presentation from a super group of super vocalists and musicians. It is a rare super group record that is actually worth the time and money among a sea of so many super group records. That is due to musical content that varies throughout for all of the metal fans out there. The lyrical content is just as varied here as the musical content, as has been noted. The production in the record and its companion put the finishing touch to the presentation. Each item is, in its own way, critical to the presentation that these two records make. All things considered, they make The Three Tremors and its companion record a collection of work that is truly a super work from a truly super group.
More information on The Three Tremors upcoming tour dates in support of The Three Tremors and The Solo Versions is available online now along with all of the group’s latest news at:
Website: http://thethreetremors.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thethreetremors
Twitter: http://twitter.com/thethreetremors
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