Neal Smith is recognized world-wide as an early pioneer of hard rock drumming. His solid drumming is the hallmark sound behind such great 1970’s Alice Cooper Group songs like “Schools Out,” “I’m Eighteen,” “Billion Dollar Babies” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” A true veteran of the drum kit, Neal Smith expands his remarkable talent on this new CD, ‘Sexual Savior’, playing drums, synthesizer, and guitar as well as all lead vocals. Each heart pounding song was written and produced by Neal Smith.
The title track ‘Sexual Savior’ followed and brought me to a true hard rock classic sound that could have been a smash hit back when radio and MTV actually favored the hard rock genre. After listening to only the first two tracks, I knew this was going to be a masterpiece. I started thinking of a band called “Pile Driver” that came out with a heavy metal masterpiece twenty years ago called ‘Metal Inquisition.’ Only a handful of true metal fans know about this CD and it made me wonder if Neal Smith had a copy?
The song set was already hot as I listened to ‘Disturbed’, ‘Beware of the Dog’ and ‘Naked in the Raw’. These songs would truly make Alice Cooper (himself) look and sound like the ‘tooth fairy.’ As each song became more brutal in nature, I hit track number eight, ‘How Do You Bleed’ – without a doubt the best song on this CD as well as one of the best, and most aggressive, songs you will ever hear. With hard core ‘death penalty’ lyrics, the mass attack on the drum kit, multi-personality vocals and energetic rhythm guitar (all provided by Neal Smith), this song will blow your mind, or it may self destruct on its own.
With eleven tracks in total, the final track ‘Human Evolution’ gives us a 20th century war torn history lesson that lets us know Neal Smith has always been the ‘missing link’ we have been searching for.
On top of being a great collection of hard rock tunes, this CD is a music lesson for all who enter the sport of ‘heavy metal.’ To have one of the world’s most respected drummers strap on a guitar and play the hard crunching rhythm pieces you will hear on this CD is amazing. I am not sure if all drummers should take guitar lessons or all guitarists should take drum lessons but the train-of-thought here is unbelievable. Each song structure on ‘Sexual Savior’ is a front-end and back-end mass attack at the same time. This is the real ‘shock and awe.’ No air pockets whatsoever.
The pure ‘naked truth’ is Neal Smith has come out of hibernation knowing it is another presidential election year he would like your vote. Whether you are ‘addicted to love’, or you ‘love it to death’, this CD is shaken, not stirred. Enjoy. www.NealSmith.com