Review Summary: Rock out and take no shit.
During the 1980's, Hard Rock and Heavy Metal had entered a penultimate renaissance of commercial success and critical acclaim. Bands like AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Iron maiden, Slayer, and Metallica were paving the way for most Hard Rock/Heavy Metal bands to come later. During this heightened time for the genres, one band would mix both and come out with a debut album that would hit the charts hard in 1986. That band was Tesla.
To describe Tesla would be hard in itself. Despite following many musical traditions of Hard Rock/Heavy Metal acts at the time, the band never painted themselves as anything unique. They were known for dressing in casual wear, and would mostly conduct themselves as normal people. Hell, a couple times you could even see them wearing flip flops and drinking coca-cola (I'm serious). The bare bones truth was, Tesla didn't give a fuck about their appearance. They were a band that relied solely on their talents as technical wizards in the realms of Rock and Metal and nothing more. That technical wizardry is what made their debut album
Mechanical Resonance so damn good.
One of the best parts of this album is in its introduction.
Ez Come Ez Go features heavy guitar riffing as Jeff Keith wobbles his vocals. Soon the vocals hit higher notes and the riffing gets even more intense. To be frank,
Ez Come Ez Go is my favorite track on the album. It is hard, inventive, and establishes the general tone for the album in the best way possible.
Cumin' Atcha Live is at best a track dedicated to paying tribute to Rock/Metal acts before it. The track starts off with an absolutely crazy guitar duet from Skeoch and Hannon in the same vain as Van Halen's
Eruption, while also using its title to directly mimic the innuendo in Quiet Riot's
Cum On Feel The Noize. Jeff Keith's vocals once again go absolutely ham, but the real treat here is in the guitar work, with the guitar duo of Skeoch and Hannon jumping between each other with massive riffs and string switches with such reckless abandon.
2 Late 4 Love starts with heavier percussion sequences at the beginning as the guitars are slowly placed inside until keith's vocals initiate every instrument en masse to just go nuts and never look back. The amazing thing about Tesla was how talented they all were in regards to their instruments, producing quality instrumentals to the vocals. They all knew how to play instruments and could go toe to toe with the veterans in the business at the time. Another really great track is
Cover Queen which clearly separates the guitars into two different background and foreground subsections; this allows your ears to just be bombarded with sound from every section as Keith dubs his vocals in a Queen-quartet style.
Tesla is one of the most underrated Hard Rock groups of all time. At the time of
Mechanical Resonance, Tesla had established themselves as a force to be reckoned within the Rock sphere of the 1980's. Back in the day, their debut album was a success, but nowadays it seems this band have been lost to time. It's sad, because this band deserves an extraordinary amount of recognition for their soaring vocals, technical virtuosity, and high impact riffing. To put it bluntly; they were amazing.
