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Cacti is a band that does not sound like their contemporaries.
If anything, I’d say that they are kind of a throwback of sorts to
early 90’s metal bands. My sense of them from the first listen was
that they were big Metallica fans; many of the guitar lines remind me
of Black-album era Metallica (“Unknown”, an instrumental track
on the CD, is very much like the opening of “Nothing Else Matters”); I
was not surprised to find that they did find their inspiration in
bands like Anthrax, and Pearl Jam. It shows in their guitar work; it
is not the Drop-D crunch of today’s bands… they use lines of melody
and thick rhythm parts to create very interesting work! Over and over
on my comment sheet, I wrote “I like the guitars; very layered and
interesting”. This was true of “David’s Blood”, “Fine Line”,
“Clowns of Hate”, and “My Winter”. I’m not sure if Dante
or Shotz is responsible for arranging the guitar lines, but I like
what they have done on the CD! Overall, the instrumentation is very
good! I’d love to hear this band live, because I think that I would
really like them.
The weakness on this CD comes in the area of vocals. I was not very
impressed with the vocal quality on this disk; I think it has much to
do with the way that the vocals were recorded. I remember my days of
4-track tape machines, and how you’d spend tons of time layering
instrument parts, and then just throw the vocals on one track and
forget about them. For my part, I was a bass player; I dug playing,
and the vocals just didn’t thrill me as much as recording the musical
parts. I don’t know if that’s the case here, but the project suffers
because of a lack of attention in recording the vocals. They are very
dry, and not of the same quality as the musical parts. Lyrically, the
songs were interesting; I have to admit that “Clowns of Hate” was a
little campy; I wasn’t frightened as I felt I should be by the song;
it seemed sort of “Spinal Tap-like”! I feel like Dante Hick’s vocals
are good, but they just don’t have any ambience, or any edge to them.
I think in a club, the ambience of the room and the processing of the
live signal would give them a more interesting vocal sound, but on
this CD, it’s not very impressive. Next time, more attention should be
applied to recording the vocals, and making them top-notch!
I would recommend that you catch this band live! I hope to see them
live one day! As a reference point, I would recommend this CD. More
attention to the process of recording will produce an excellent disc
from this band! I think you’ll be hearing good things out of Cacti,
especially if they are driven to succeed in this industry! I’ll be
waiting to hear their next recording! ---Mark Lush, MWB 1/20/03
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