Tag Archives: Chris Wyse

The Clay People Release Illuminatus Lyric Video, New Album This Month

Posted on by

1990s underground metal legends The Clay People are returning with a new album later this month! Demon Hero and Other Extraordinary Phantasmagoric Anomalies & Fables on September 28th. The new 11-song album was recorded at OverIt Studios in Albany, NY. The Clay People started originally as a prominent industrial band Clay People but also had a varying style of alternative metal music that made an impact at the time. You can watch the lyric video for the first single, ‘Illuminatus’, below.


Demon Hero and Other Extraordinary Phantasmagoric Anomalies & Fables track listing:

Utopian Lie
BloodLetter
NOW
Illuminatus
genRX
Own Worst Enemy
HeX Machine
Strange Day
Palegod
Colossus
Firestarter

Singer Dan Neet described the album as “capturing us at a creative peak that was forged from what was, at times, a tenuous, cathartic and finally unifying recording process that reinvigorated and focused the band.”

The Clay People also called in extended members of its musical family to contribute to Demon Hero, with Chris Wyse (Hollywood Vampires, Ace Frehley, The Cult, OWL) contributing bass to the band’s reinterpretation of fan favorite ‘Strange Day’ and ‘genRX.’ Walter Flakus of Stabbing Westward and one-time Clay People member contributed keys, and programmer Wade Alin, who appeared on the band’s self-titled release, returns here as well.


Ace Frehley – Space Invaders

Posted on by

ace-frehley-space-invader-inside

When Ace Frehley declared on his Frehley’s Comet track ‘Rock Soldiers’, that The Devil said “Hey Frehley, Frehley, let’s not be silly, There’s a life out there to steal” he maybe didn’t perhaps mean that the Space Ace would be stealing from his own past life. On his latest release, Space Invader (eOne Music), Frehley is re-treading his work from Kiss, his early ‘Kiss’ solo album, and Frehley’s Comet, but that’s not always a bad thing. However, too often on this album the retro-feel misses a mark that could be hit by adding some more contemporary touches.

The first four tracks from Space Invader offer a promising taste of what the Space Ace can achieve. Title track, ‘Space Invader’ ‘Gimme a Feelin’, ‘I Wanna Hold You’, and ‘Change’ all nod to the past, while at the same time have Frehley’s flourishes. ‘I Wanna Hold You’ in particular has a garage band feel, while the mid-paced ‘Change’ has subtleties buried within, nodding to Frehley’s Comet days. But the rest of the release is patchy, with ‘Immortal Pleasures’ not containing the pleasures promised by this slowed down track. Equally ‘Inside the Vortex’ flops around without the direction and arrangement that could have boosted its sound. By contrast the next track ‘What Every Girl Wants’ has the right balance of cheesiness and catchy choruses and chest-out verses.

Just as Kiss occasionally dabbled in cover versions, Frehley turns in a nice version of Steve Miller’s ‘The Joker’, a relief after his voice struggles on ‘Past The Milky Way’ and ‘Reckless’ bores its way to boredom. The saving grace throughout the album is Frehley’s ability on his beloved six-string, no better exemplified than on closing instrumental ‘Starship’.

Throughout there is a feeling that Ace could have done with an ‘Ace’ collaborator. He wrote almost all of the tracks, played guitar and bass on most tracks (Matt Starr and Anton Fig are on drums and Chris Wyse takes a turn on ‘What Every Girl Wants’ and ‘Starship’). The single-mindedness of Frehley’s vision on Space Invader is both its saving grace and its downfall. The guitar work is superb throughout, with minimal use or effects, and a clear tone. But the patchy nature of the album suggests that it could have done with an iron hand in writing and production to get the Space Ace into orbit on Space Invader.

6.0/10.0

Ace Frehley on Facebook

 

JONATHAN TRAYNOR