Rock and Roll Designed to Break Your Neck! A Critical Review of GMT’s album, Bitter & Twisted I started the old workaday with some music, as is my custom on any given day. I had just trudged my way through the 1993 Coverdale-Page album, making every attempt not to burst into tears of boredom when I put on GMT’s album, Bitter & Twisted. Then I hit play… Incredible! I’m a little late getting on this mad locomotive engineered by Bernie Tormé, John McCoy, and Robin Guy, but I’m glad I finally caught on! This is the truest, most straight-ahead rock and roll album I’ve heard in a long time with roaring guitar riffs, ear-twisting, mind-bending leads, heaving bass guitar, and pounding drums, Mssrs. Tormé, McCoy (“Dammit, Jim, I’m a bass player not a surgeon!”), and Guy show no mercy and give no quarter. The album was finished way too soon and I already want more, more, more! Throughout the album, Bernie’s guitar is a mad, feral animal howling over buzzing, chugging chainsaw riffs while McCoy and Guy pound out brutal tattoo rhythms on skullcrackers like “Cannonball,” “Rocky Road (from Dublin),” and “No Justice.” This is blistering heavy metal with Bernie’s punk stylings giving it a raspy, rusty, but very sharp edge. This band is tight as hell but loose as well, often sounding like an M1 collision between the Rolling Stones, The Sex Pistols, Gillan, and Thin Lizzy. These influences come across well on songs like “Bitter & Twisted” and “Can’t Beat Rock n’ Roll.” I found that Bernie’s vocals fit the material like a tailor made glove… absolutely perfect! I don’t know that I’ve heard a singer with such a loose, lanky, and raw style since Phil Lynott or Roger Daltrey. Here is not some androgenous poser trying to climb the scales like an opera diva, here instead is a cool punter just belting it out and puttin’ some stank on it, as we say in the south. “Down to Here” is loose, bluesy, and just a bit drunk on Hendrix in a very good way, showcasing Bernie’s unique vocal style and fine guitar work. The ghost of Hendrix drifts in again to mix it up with shades of The Who on “Miss the Buzz.” But don’t think this band is a one-trick pony. “Summerland” drifts along on lovely acoustic guitars before alternately mutating into a monstrous barnstormer for the chorus before drifting right into dreamy psychedelia floating through your headspace like some beautiful cloud. This song sounds like it could be a big hit if contemporary had any testicular fortitude. The band showcases its sense of humor on “Vincenzo (Della Grande Pumpo Del Amoré)” and, for Gillan fans only, brings in ex-Gillan cohort, Colin Towns, to add some tasty keyboard licks, and a special little fan adding a bicycle bell to great, and hilarious, effect! Did I say band? GMT is a heaving, thrusting powerhouse whose brutal assault will leave your head crushed out on the floor like an over-ripe melon. Make no mistake, this is dangerous, unpredictable, incendiary rock and roll music that takes no prisoners and spits in the face of conventional expectations. One listen for me and I am a devoted fan ready for the next album. If you like powerful rock music with lots of attitude, do yourself a HUGE favor and buy yourself a copy of Bitter & Twisted. It will definitely “raise the bloodlust pounding in your veins!” ALSO CHECK OUT UK DEEP PURPLE CONVENTION 3.5.08 HERE
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