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MASK:
"The Fox" MLP Rarity: |
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Going Down |
MASK was a band
that had some serious elements to keep the eyes on them: good compositions,
a label and occasional gigs here and there, even TV covering. Even when
they where a band more into Heavy/Hard Rock , any real fan of (melodic)
Heavy metal can appreciate the good musical effort the band materialized
in their one and only record on vinyl "The Fox". >Going Down< is the
typical Hard rocking song with good moments, in fact an orchestral chorus
appears giving a push to this song. Sadly the very modest production helps
no shit and lots of elements are lost here and there. >Bring us the light<
rocks with good choruses and the always present keyboard which gives a very
commercial touch to the whole band. As usual, the guitar is dig deep in
the mix, and very few times you can hear that the guitar is there. By now
surely you noticed that the band uses English written lyrics, something
totally unusual in Mexico and most of the Latin countries, even the bigger
bands use Spanish to sing, but not MASK; this as a clear attempt to reach
bigger markets in USA and Europe. The A side closing song >Killers<
repeats the formula of the other ones so far, trying to keep the continuity
with all the rest. The second side opens with >Spiritual Confusion<,
with good lyrics and good guitar/keyboard solos. Perhaps the strong, and
at the same time weakest aspect of the band would be the vocalist Jose Fors,
whose vocals are too deep and bass oriented for a band of Heavy rock. Perhaps
a high pitches vocalist would have given better results for the band, anyway,
the record is here… With >The Fox< the band gets a bit heavier, at
times even more aggressive. Curiously, this is the tracks where the guitar
is more present and the keyboards are discrete… The last song is >Fly
High< that actually sucks, since it is a senseless and boring ballad,
which would have been substituted by a powerful track, or at least a good
Hard Rock song. Not even here the acoustic guitar of Arturo Ybarra takes
a relevant place.. Anyway, this is a Mini-LP that must be in the collection
of serious fans of very melodic Metal or Hard Rockers. After the releasing
of this piece of vinyl, the band disappeared, and the guys just ended as
session musicians for various bands far off the Hard Rock way. Reviewed by Jose Luis Cano |