OK folks, best to hold on because this is another of those albums that is liable to have you leaping around your room like a fool if you come across it unprepared. The Green River Project is a meeting of minds between Andy Law (vocals), Mick Priestly (guitar/bass) and Alex Martin (drums) and as you might imagine from an album that features performances from Dragonforce’s ZP Theart and Cradle Of Filth’s Adrian Erlandsson, this is a blistering tour-de-force of pure heavy metal with more solos than you can shake the proverbial stick at.
Opening with a gloriously languid solo, ‘Dig your grave’ cheerfully wrong-foots you before darting into full-on shred territory, Mick Priestly asserting his skills as a guitarist of some note in no uncertain terms. As the guitars rampage around you and Andy Law’s perfectly phrased and gritty vocals tear out of the speakers, you know instantly that this is something a bit special, a bit above and beyond what you may have been expecting, which is largely thanks to the band’s ability to match memorable melodies and lyrics to their blistering musicality. Hints of Dragonforce’s technical shred, Children of bodom’s blackened thrash and Dave Mustaine’s fret-murdering dexterity are all shot through this first track and goddam, if you’re head isn’t banging by the end of the track then go put on Coldplay because metal clearly isn’t for you. This is the sort of CD that you want to share with your metal inclined friends instantly, the sort of album you inflict on everybody in the hope that they’ll share your enthusiasm and sport the same cheesy grin that you’ll undoubtedly find yourself wearing when ‘no return’ (featuring Muggsy on bass)drops like a tactical nuke right into your lap and tears up your living room like Judas Priest on steroids of the most pernicious kind. ‘Out of the dark below’ sees ZP Theart rears his head for a song that takes all of ten seconds for the guitar histrionics to kick in over a riff that’s chunkier than an elephant burger. It’s a great example of trad-metal instilled with a nitro charge of latter-day shred, the song coming off thanks to a combination of Mick’s remarkable guitar chops and ZP channelling the evil love-child of Dickinson and Halford in a sneeringly brilliant vocal performance that proves to be only one of the seven highlights that make up this mini album.
One brief, and sonically devastating, interlude in the form of the remarkable riffing of ‘flight of the bumblebee’(a long established showcase in the metal world), later and ‘nowhere to run’ turns up the heat with searing riffs, furious drums (one of the two tracks played on by Adrian Erlandsson, the other being ‘dig your grave’) and Andy Law’s best vocal performance, balancing raw power and biting tunefulness with consummate skill. ‘Summer-presto’ is surely one of the most grandiose, over-blown statements in rock and it utterly rules. Part metal-firestorm, part operatic self-indulgence it’s a baroque feast of stunning guitar technique and heavy metal blood ‘n’ thunder and it showcases the oft-unacknowledged links between classical compositions and metal with wit and intelligence, not to mention the fact that it still makes you want to bang your head like a demon. Final track, ‘the storm’, opens with string-backed acoustic picking before gathering momentum for a beautifully played finale that will have air-guitarists climaxing furiously as the music fades away.
A short, sharp shock, The Green River project has only one fault and that is that it is too short. In Andy Law the band have a fine vocalist indeed and Mick Priestly cannot get enough plaudits for his stunning virtuosity. In an age where the vacuous is not only tolerated but promoted via tedious dross like The Voice and X Factor, we need talented souls such as Mick to remind us that the flame still burns bright. It is so easy to be cynical about new acts, but there’s so much amazing music out there, operating under the radar and crafting the sort of blisteringly intense music that the mainstream has simply never understood. This is as real as it gets, beautifully crafted, and even better played, blasts of fiery heavy metal that make you want to scream, jump and mosh ‘till you drop. If you love passionate heavy metal played by inordinately talented individuals then you need to check this out.
