Published on Mar 31, 2004
Quick! What do you get when a repeated gold-selling rock outfit
takes nearly four years off between album releases, switches
guitarists, and releases an album to a label that goes belly up
just one month after the record hits the shelves?
The answer is Triumph’s
Edge Of Excess, an album that seemingly doesn’t count and
could be unfairly categorized as a wasted effort.
Too bad if that’s your first reaction. Sure, the departure of
singer/songwriter/guitarist and posterboy pinup Rik Emmett from the
band in 1989 resulted in some messy courtroom litigation that had
many people thinking this Canadian rock trio was finished. But
Triumph, by virtue of having drummer Gil Moore and Emmett teaming
up to share the singing/songwriting duties through the eight-album
history of the band, had always been more dynamic than most bands
with regards to the chemistry found on each album. Moore’s tracks
and vocals provided the power; Emmett’s generated the finesse.
Fan familiarity with the separate vocal/songwriting elements of
past Triumph albums would prove to be a valuable resource for this
release and also prove to leave enough gas in the tank to make
Edge Of Excess an album worth checking out.
So while realizing that Triumph had always packaged “two albums
in one,”
Edge Of Excess understandably would take on a new face as
Moore would find himself tasked with having to anchor the lead
songwriting duties. Add in the hard riffing Phil Xenidis, as the
replacement to Emmett, and the over/under on
Edge Of Excess‘ evolving into a no-frills rock album
obviously weighed heavily in that direction.
I, for one, can’t say that turned out to be a bad thing. Sure,
Moore’s songwriting was never overly sophisticated but that never
mattered to me. He has always had a rock voice that could handle
singing some blues as parts of “Black Sheep” would illustrate. And
the opening track”Child of the City” turned out to be one of the
best Triumph songs that Emmett never wrote. The opening guitar
riffs of Xenidis on the song were decidedly a tribute to the new
era as the musical differences that frustrated Moore and Emmett in
the past centered on what Moore claimed to be Emmett softening in
his approach to his songwriting.
Additionally, another track on the album, “Troublemaker” enjoyed
the notoriety that came with the fact of its inclusion on the
Hellraiser 3 movie soundtrack. It’s a song that would have
never made it to a Triumph album previously as in my estimation;
it’s the hardest song Triumph would ever lay claim to. In it’s
current format, the power of the song would have disrupted the AOR
balance each album Triumph had put out to this point.
On the ballad, It’s Over, Moore does seem to struggle with the
opening notes but rallies to handle the chorus in fine fashion. The
old days would have had him dueting his way through the song as he
did on
Thunder Seven‘s “Killing Time and The Sport of Kings “Hooked
on You.” And while it might seem unfair to keep comparing
Edge Of Excess back to the albums that had the dueling
songwriting element, one must remember, it’s the standard Triumph
set for themselves.
For many fans, the road most easily traveled is to bemoan what
Edge Of Excess didn’t have and that’s obviously the
contributions of Rik Emmett. But, I find that to be a cop out.
Moore and bassist Mike Levine did a noble job in keeping the rock
n’ roll machine moving forward with this release. Through no fault
of Triumph’s, Victory Music’s parent Polygram pulled the plug on
the marketing and distribution operation as the album was just
getting out of the gates. As a result, the album lost the airplay
radio was just beginning to give their first single, “Child of the
City.” And with that, it was almost as if
Edge Of Excess never existed.
As I said earlier, Moore’s voice was always fundamentally half
of the Triumph equation. Simple mathematics would suggest
Edge Of Excess would generate only half the chops one would
expect from a Triumph album. I can’t say that’s necessarily the
case in the instance.