GUS G.
Konstantinos Karamitroudis, or otherwise better known as Gus G, comes to us as a world-renowned guitarist, having worked with the likes of Ozzy for his solo career, as well as a pivotal part of Greece’s Firewind, and now starting a new chapter with this trio of talented cast members. Dennis Ward joins the fray as lead vocalist and bassist, as well as former Evanescence drummer, Will Hunt.
Name recognition alone will not win you any awards in this day and age and, unfortunately, what we have here is less than inspiring universal rock. Each track has a very, “This sounds just like _____, but meh” feel to it and it is very difficult to recommend outside of the most hardcore of old-school metal fans.
There are a few good tracks to be found here, but I am not sure I would really call any of these “metal”. ‘Letting Go’ and ‘Last of my Kind’ exemplify the very best this offering provides and should be considered middle ground tier at best. Decent hard rock, at best, with mixes of that bro-country/rock. Doesn’t that sound delicious to you? The track ‘Nothing to Say’ is a ballad full of misery and ear throbbing flub that should be skipped by all listeners.
Hillbilly-rock Dire Straits cover of “Money for Nothing”. You have to be kidding me…
With that being said, a few bright spots are genuinely cool moments of ‘Fearless’. There are two instrumental tracks that MUST be heard, because they’re spectacular. Crisp guitars, brilliant pacing and energetic themes are fully capsulated within both the title track of this release and ‘Thrill of the Chase’, which comes near the closing of the album and was so great that I was left begging for more! These two tracks tell more of a story and have far more emotion than anything else found here. Why couldn’t the entire album been like this?
This release is very unbalanced with cheesy lyrics, unoriginal chorus’, and yet capable of spectacular guitar solos and excellent audio/editing quality. Imagine a band like Fozzy without any originality or ambition to stretch the genre whatsoever. Then you have the works of ‘Fearless’. What is that? Are you craving an entire album of recycled riffs and unoriginal lyrics presented in a crisp pickle jar of prog-metal glory? If so then Gus G’s ‘Fearless’ might just be for you!
Name recognition alone will not win you any awards in this day and age and, unfortunately, what we have here is less than inspiring universal rock. Each track has a very, “This sounds just like _____, but meh” feel to it and it is very difficult to recommend outside of the most hardcore of old-school metal fans.
There are a few good tracks to be found here, but I am not sure I would really call any of these “metal”. ‘Letting Go’ and ‘Last of my Kind’ exemplify the very best this offering provides and should be considered middle ground tier at best. Decent hard rock, at best, with mixes of that bro-country/rock. Doesn’t that sound delicious to you? The track ‘Nothing to Say’ is a ballad full of misery and ear throbbing flub that should be skipped by all listeners.
Hillbilly-rock Dire Straits cover of “Money for Nothing”. You have to be kidding me…
With that being said, a few bright spots are genuinely cool moments of ‘Fearless’. There are two instrumental tracks that MUST be heard, because they’re spectacular. Crisp guitars, brilliant pacing and energetic themes are fully capsulated within both the title track of this release and ‘Thrill of the Chase’, which comes near the closing of the album and was so great that I was left begging for more! These two tracks tell more of a story and have far more emotion than anything else found here. Why couldn’t the entire album been like this?
This release is very unbalanced with cheesy lyrics, unoriginal chorus’, and yet capable of spectacular guitar solos and excellent audio/editing quality. Imagine a band like Fozzy without any originality or ambition to stretch the genre whatsoever. Then you have the works of ‘Fearless’. What is that? Are you craving an entire album of recycled riffs and unoriginal lyrics presented in a crisp pickle jar of prog-metal glory? If so then Gus G’s ‘Fearless’ might just be for you!
LABEL:
FORMAT:
AFM Records
Album
FEARLESS
Review by Joshua Jaeger
RUNNING TIME:
43:41
RELEASE DATE:
20th April 2018
TRACK LISTING
1) Letting Go
2) Mr Manson
3) Don't Tread on Me
4) Fearless
5) Nothing to Say
6) Money for Nothing
7) Chances
8) Thrill of the Chase
9) Big City
10) Last of My Kind
2) Mr Manson
3) Don't Tread on Me
4) Fearless
5) Nothing to Say
6) Money for Nothing
7) Chances
8) Thrill of the Chase
9) Big City
10) Last of My Kind
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
Greece
"Are you craving an entire album of recycled riffs and unoriginal lyrics presented in a crisp pickle jar of prog-metal glory? If so then Gus G’s ‘Fearless’ might just be for you!"
