Review Summary: A sometimes fun, often frustrating thrill-ride of punky 80’s metal.
In any chosen profession, there comes a time when one gets tired of the same old routine and feels a desire to break from the norm, to try something new. In this regard, musicians have it better than most other professionals, because while most careers aren’t conducive to this type of wish-fulfillment, music certainly is. This explains why we so often see ‘side projects’ or entirely new bands being formed by renowned (usually veteran) musicians, and why these bands so often stray an entirely different path from the artist’s original outfit. After all, the entire
point of creating an alternate project is to do something different from what you did before, is it not?
However, while this may be clear to an outside observer, it seldom is to fans, particularly rabid ones. The mere inkling that their favorite artist might be doing something – gasp! –
different turns these fans from amiable, often knowledgeable people to mindless drones on the same level as the lowest tween fanbrat. Their arguments begin to revolve around such erudite points as “this sucks because it’s different!”, and they generally become very unpleasant people. What they don’t see is that they’re actually
hurting their so-called ‘idol’, who not only loses the will to return to the former status quo, but often loses the will to do anything else
at all within the world of music. One has but to think of Michael Kiske’s post-Helloween career to find a good example of this.
The latest example of a side project falling by the wayside is Toxic Taste, basically what happened when Rock’n’Rolf Kasparek, of Running Wild fame, got tired of playing pirate and decided to play glammed-up alien spaceman instead. To achieve this, he quickly put a lid on his former band, changed his name to TT Poison, and recruited four similarly ridiculously-monikered musicians to make up his new “space-punk-glam-rock” band. A full-length album quickly followed, to a scathing reception from Running Wild fans, which deemed Kasparek’s new visuals “laughably cheesy” (as if anything could be cheesier than the whole pirate gimmick) and manifested horrified concern for the “punkier” leanings of their idol’s new project.
And herein lies the first item of puzzlement: apart from Kasparek’s own pseudo-original labeling of this new band, there is precious little punk to be found here at all. Sure, the song structures are simple, the songs themselves short and the riffs straightforward, often taking on an almost Ramonian nature; but Toxic Taste’s roots are still firmly entrenched in heavy metal, with the whole album being an unpretentious, if flawed, throwback to the eighties.
The eponymous opener already does a good job of introducing the band, with its chorus of
”T-O-X-I-C/don’t need no chemistry/T-A-S-T-E/getting high on Toxic, Toxic Taste”. Unfortunately, this valorous effort is bogged down by some grade-school level lyrics, keeping it just short of an actual standout. From here on out, we are in for a sometimes fun, often frustrating thrill-ride of punky 80’s metal. While the group does have its strengths – contagious, driving rhythms, a few interesting details by bass player Francis Cauter-Rize, a couple of decent choruses – some of their flaws begin to show at this early stage, as well. The main one is repetition – about half of these tracks sound like the exact same song (a fast, punky rocker) with slightly different vocal lines and choruses, leading to a quick decrease in interest from the listener.
However, even when the group attempts a little variation, the results are very hit-or-miss –
Nighttime’s Waiting and
Time Of Our Life are decent 80’s rockers, but cheesefests like
Neon Angel, Starlight Serenade or
Anytime represent the very worst this album has to offer, with their sappy instrumentation, insincere delivery and cringe-worthy lyrics. Moreover, the album runs out of ideas halfway through, leaving the listener in the hands of below-par rockers for a good stretch before
Rock’n’Roll comes along with its sax solo to save the day. It’s no doubt ironic that the song called
Rock’n’Roll is the one to possess a sax solo, and even more ironic that such an artifice will help save a heavy metal record, but that is undoubtedly the case here.
In short,
Toxification is a very polarizing record. At certain moments, one is prone to hating it, with its paper-thin music, cheesy choruses and overtly similar riffing. At other times, the listener will go along with the band’s sense of fun and find his or herself headbanging to some of the peppier tunes or appreciating singer Marc Acid’s technically average, but sufficient mixture of Udo Dirkschneider and any given glam vocalist. It is these moments that ultimately keep
Toxification from the lower rating it possibly deserves, allowing it to just scrape by on a technicality. However, with the Running Wild fans already in possession of their copy – and horrified by it – the album is left without much of a market, as only the greenest of novices will find any interest in this as opposed to some real, and better, ‘80s heavy metal. Probe at your own risk.
Recommended Tracks
N.C.R.
Nighttime’s Waiting
Rock’n’Roll
