Pink Cream 69
Ceremonial
Frontiers Records
2013
It’s been quite long, at some point I was afraid that I wasn’t gonna hear from the guys. Dennis Ward was so busy with other projects and PC69 had been put on ice for almost 6 years. Luckily, the announcement for the band’s new album brought joy to the fans and to me of course, as I fancy PC69 a lot since the Deris days. To speak the truth, I wasn’t so satisfied with the band’s latest works. Not that they weren’t good… but they just weren’t great.
Anyhow, “Ceremonial” left me with kinda mixed feelings. On the one hand, it has a very fresh, updated, powerful sound and the tunes are very good. Things that make “Ceremonial” the best work of the last 3-4 releases the band has offered us. On the other hand, it could have been more cohesive and the guys should have avoided a few mediocre tunes that reduce the overall excitement of the album. The greatest songs here are: “Land of Confusion”, “Wasted Years”, “Special”, “Passage of Time”, “I Came to Rock”, & “King for a Day”. The 90s grunge/alternative influenced (bits of Alice in Chains comes in mind) “Find Your Soul” just doesn’t work that well for me. The other songs are OK but sorta generic in general. I think they should have made the album playing time around 45 minutes and not 52 that it’s now. In other words, a couple of songs could have been left aside.
Anyhow, “Ceremonial” left me with kinda mixed feelings. On the one hand, it has a very fresh, updated, powerful sound and the tunes are very good. Things that make “Ceremonial” the best work of the last 3-4 releases the band has offered us. On the other hand, it could have been more cohesive and the guys should have avoided a few mediocre tunes that reduce the overall excitement of the album. The greatest songs here are: “Land of Confusion”, “Wasted Years”, “Special”, “Passage of Time”, “I Came to Rock”, & “King for a Day”. The 90s grunge/alternative influenced (bits of Alice in Chains comes in mind) “Find Your Soul” just doesn’t work that well for me. The other songs are OK but sorta generic in general. I think they should have made the album playing time around 45 minutes and not 52 that it’s now. In other words, a couple of songs could have been left aside.
In the main, “Ceremonial” is a very enjoyable album that has a big sound and some very nice hooks. David Readman’s performances are also wonderful on the whole. The fans of the band will embrace the band & the album and that’s natural, after so many years. At the end of the day, I had a smile on my face but in truth to be told, it can’t be compared to PC69’s “classic” release but that doesn’t necessarily mean that “Ceremonial” ain’t a very good album as well. Let’s just hope that due to Dennis’ other music commitments, it won’t take them 6 years to come up with a new release…