Published on Apr 1, 1997
There are times that bands appear from out of the blue, produce
one amazing work, then disappear without a trace, leaving only that
one slab of glory behind them.
That’s one reason I was thrilled to find out that The Four
Horsemen, a five-piece blooze-and-boogie band akin to AC/DC, had
returned five years after releasing their major-label debut. Of
course, I plan to add this newer title to the Pierce Memorial
Archives (Now showing in the theater:
Heaven’s Gate), but for now we’ll take a look at their first
release,
Nobody Said It Was Easy.
The focus here is guitar, guitar, crunchin’ frippin’ guitar…
and the two-axe attack of Dave Lizmi and Haggis does the Texas
two-step on your eardrums. Frank C. Starr’s vocals go from Axl
Rose-meets-Brian Johnson in one song to a growl the next, to a
megaphone-enhanced track the next. He is a capable singer, though
it would have been nice if he had settled on one style. Add to this
the thundering bass work of Ben Pape and solid trap work by Ken
“Dimwit” Montgomery, and you have yourselves one incredible
band.
Haggis handles most of the songwriting on
Nobody Said It Was Easy, and while he writes some great
songs (“the title track, “Rockin’ Is Ma’ Business,” “Hot Head”),
others miss the target by a mile (“75 Again”). Starr is credited
for lyrics on two of the songs, though these all are band
collaborations – it would have been interesting to see what kind of
influences each musician brought to this band had they each written
a song on their own.
The best track on this one is “Rockin’ Is Ma’ Business,”
complete with killer rhythm guitar riffs, a steaming solo and
Starr’s tortured vocals. Though this one couldn’t get on the radio
due to their use of one word (the sixth on George Carlin’s famous
“Seven Words” list), it would have been a great AOR track. In fact,
this whole album was criminally ignored by radio.
Though the hits outnumber the misses on this album, there are a
few bad apples in the bunch. “Wanted Man” takes forever to build to
its climax, and it doesn’t do much when it does hit its stride.
“Let It Rock” also fails to do anything with its allotted time on
the CD. And while I like the combination track “I Need A Thrill /
Somethin’ Good,” the ending instrumental portion takes too long to
wrap up – so long, in fact, that producer Rick Rubin threw in the
sound effect of the recording tape running out and flapping on the
take-up spool.
Nobody Said It Was Easy is a very enjoyable album, one that
will put you into a footstompin’ mood, warts and all. I do hope
their latest release is as good, if not better, than this one – it
really was a shame that no one noticed them the first time
around.