VOODOO HILL – Wild Seed Of Mother Earth

Voodoo Hill is one of the latest projects by guitar/songwriter/sound production wizard Dario Mollo from Italy. Wild Seed Of Mother Earth (WSoME) is the second album released under the name Voodoo Hill. One of the main selling points of this band is that the famed Glenn Hughes handles all of the vocals. Mollo has a tendency, however, to work with the best, as his previous project had him paired up with Tony Martin (former Black Sabbath vocalist), and Graham Bonnet (Rainbow & Alcatrazz) has joined in for the Elektric Zoo endeavor. Voodoo Hill’s self-titled premier album was recognized by many as one of the best releases of 2000. So with high expectations, comes this sophomore release of the band …

WHAT’S GOOD

The production quality and songwriting definitely takes the cake with WSoME — the latter being a pretty encompassing statement. Mollo and company deliver 11 tracks in this album, and 9 of them are completely solid Metal tunes! The first 4 tracks have a very rough, Mosh-Pit Metal edge to them, featuring heavy opening riffs, strong bass lines, and resounding drum beats. Of course, Hughes is no slouch here either, but the clarity of the instruments via Mollo’s solid production techniques is truly a joy to hear. Amid these “rough” tracks are solid lyrical verses and very memorable choruses that will have you singing along after a couple spins of this CD. The CD slows down considerably for the emotional title track, then picks up steam again for tracks 6 – 10, but the style changes a bit too to become noticeably more polished and “radio-friendly,” if you will. All of these tracks are again solid, just different than the first 4, and the title track in the middle provides a logical transition into this stylistic modification.

WHAT’S LESS THAN GOOD

Hughes definitely sells each song and is a magnificent talent, but he tends to “over sing” a few of verse lines with what appears to be unwarranted effervescence of emotion – a few examples include “My Eyes Don’t See It,” and “Can’t Stop Falling.” Also, the “slowdown” songs, namely the title track and the last track, “16 Guns,” tend to plod along without the same pop as the other 9 tracks … to his credit, though, Mollo saves both of these songs by completely getting off during the extended solos, making both of these tracks meritorious nonetheless.

FINAL THOUGHTS

WSoME is definitely an album worth checking out … if you’re familiar with Voodoo Hill’s debut album, this time around Mollo and company have delivered harder, yet catchier, songs from beginning to end. Mollo clearly shows his songwriting and guitar skills are top notch, and he shows why more and more bands are coming to his personally crafted studio to have him handle their sound production and engineering!

REPORT CARD

Guitars: A-
Bass: B
Percussion: B
Keyboards: C
Vocals: B+
Lyrics: B
Recording Quality: A
Originality: B+
Overall Rating: B+