Johnny Wore Black
Walking Underwater Pt. 2
Dead Cherry
2014
As this is the first time that I come upon Johnny Wore Black, the name of Dave Ellefson (Megadeth) was crucial to make me listen to this album more intensively. I guess that only goes for the metalheads, as it won’t make a difference for the fans of other music genres.
I didn’t expect to hear anything near Megadeth and thankfully I was proven right. Firstly Johnny Wore Black is the musical project of the guy under the same name and also by the name Jay that he seems to prefer. Dave participated in the album not only by playing the bass in the majority of the tracks but also by having co-written 3 of them. “Firefly”, “A Cut Above” & “Gift of Desperation” are the tracks which have been co-written by Dave and, in truth to be told, they are among the best tracks of the album. It’s good to see Dave’s creativity (which is mostly suppressed on Megadeth) in something beyond metal music. And he did quite well. Definitely some narrow-minded metalheads will not find this album near their liking so they will have few “kind” things to say about it. Unfortunately, such instances are way too many in music so let’s better deal with the positive side of music and albums such as this.
Jay sings with passion and his music has a very attractive, dark, atmospheric and emotive side. On this album rock, pop-rock, alternative rock, ambient, hard rock, modern, acoustic rock and new wave music have been blended together harmonically in order to create a rather enthralling final outcome. Perhaps this album also exhales a specific hypotonic & smooth feeling at times. Jay produced the album by himself, with several tracks having been mixed by Grammy-award winning producer David Bottrill (King Crimson, Tool, Stone Sour, Muse, etc.). The production is great too.
Apart from Dave there also two guest appearances by the Croatian singer Sara Renar on “Shine On” and the renowned soul singer Loretta Heywood on “Winter in July”, which is a cover by Bomb The Bass. Yeah, Loretta sings on both the original and the cover track – how about that huh?!! The cover is rockin’ with several atmospheric and new wave touches. It’s somewhat risky to approach such successful pop tracks of the early 90s, but Jay did it with sensitivity and style. A very good cover on the whole. Ultimately, “Walking Underwater Pt. 2” is a fairly good and pleasurable rock album. Now that the second part of “Walking Underwater” is concluded, it will be nice to see what’s next for Johnny Wore Black, since the band has gained much reputation and their next steps will also be quite determining for their future…
I didn’t expect to hear anything near Megadeth and thankfully I was proven right. Firstly Johnny Wore Black is the musical project of the guy under the same name and also by the name Jay that he seems to prefer. Dave participated in the album not only by playing the bass in the majority of the tracks but also by having co-written 3 of them. “Firefly”, “A Cut Above” & “Gift of Desperation” are the tracks which have been co-written by Dave and, in truth to be told, they are among the best tracks of the album. It’s good to see Dave’s creativity (which is mostly suppressed on Megadeth) in something beyond metal music. And he did quite well. Definitely some narrow-minded metalheads will not find this album near their liking so they will have few “kind” things to say about it. Unfortunately, such instances are way too many in music so let’s better deal with the positive side of music and albums such as this.
Jay sings with passion and his music has a very attractive, dark, atmospheric and emotive side. On this album rock, pop-rock, alternative rock, ambient, hard rock, modern, acoustic rock and new wave music have been blended together harmonically in order to create a rather enthralling final outcome. Perhaps this album also exhales a specific hypotonic & smooth feeling at times. Jay produced the album by himself, with several tracks having been mixed by Grammy-award winning producer David Bottrill (King Crimson, Tool, Stone Sour, Muse, etc.). The production is great too.
Apart from Dave there also two guest appearances by the Croatian singer Sara Renar on “Shine On” and the renowned soul singer Loretta Heywood on “Winter in July”, which is a cover by Bomb The Bass. Yeah, Loretta sings on both the original and the cover track – how about that huh?!! The cover is rockin’ with several atmospheric and new wave touches. It’s somewhat risky to approach such successful pop tracks of the early 90s, but Jay did it with sensitivity and style. A very good cover on the whole. Ultimately, “Walking Underwater Pt. 2” is a fairly good and pleasurable rock album. Now that the second part of “Walking Underwater” is concluded, it will be nice to see what’s next for Johnny Wore Black, since the band has gained much reputation and their next steps will also be quite determining for their future…