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Red Dragon Cartel – ‘Self Titled’
Review By Mike Richardson
Chances are, if you’re on this website you know who Jake E. Lee is, but if not, here’s the basics:
After playing with the likes of Ratt and Dio, Lee joined Ozzy Osbourne’s band to replace the late, great, Randy Rhoads. Lee played with Ozzy for 5 years and after being unceremoniously fired, released albums with Badlands and solo material as well as odd guest appearances and other projects. Fairly important for this review is the contention between Lee, Ozzy and Bob Daisley over writing credits for the ‘Bark at the Moon’ album.
Why is any of this relevant to a review? Well the instant opening track ‘Deceived’ kicks in it sounds like ‘Bark at the Moon II’. The main riff, the construction, the chorus… Every part of the song, musically, is almost identical to the classic Ozzy track, vocalist D.H. Smith has a little Ozzy in the vocal delivery too. Deceived is a solid, decent heavy rock song.
‘Shout it Out’ and ‘Feeder’ both sound more contemporary. There’s still a classic rock guitar feel courtesy of Lee, but there’s a touch of something industrial about the chorus of these two tracks (and portions of the rest of the album) that’s reminiscent of Rob Zombie or Union Underground. The bass, particularly on ‘Feeder’ is superb and the guest appearance from Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander works really well,
‘Fall from the Sky’ is a classic rock style ballad, with Smith sounding a little like M. Shadows (A7X) in places. Track 5; ‘Wasted’ opens with a little of that industrial sound coming back in only to tear into some real rock ‘n’ roll swagger as ex Maiden singer Paul Di’anno sneers “yeah right” to start one of the album’s catchiest numbers.
‘Slaves’ frenetic pace gives Lee a chance to demonstrate his skills and then up steps another guest vocalist; Maria Brink from In this Moment delivering a sultry and emotive vocal performance over a relatively simple, chunky riff-monster.
Track 8 is like a love-letter to classic Black Sabbath with the intro to ‘War Machine’ sounding very similar to the intro to ‘War Pigs’ before slipping into a riff with ‘NIB’ all over it. Smith, again, channels a bit of Ozzy and the song delivers as one of the stand outs of the album.
‘Redeem Me’ with S.U.N. vocalist Sass Jordan delves once more into classic rock and almost pop-rock territory before the short piano piece that ends the album.
As well as the aforementioned guest vocal spots there are many other people appearing on this album, with musicians from 5-Finger Death Punch, Pantera and members of Slash’s band. With all these different influences and ideas, there was always potential for this album to sound a little disjointed as a whole. Overall though the worst songs on the album are good, but most are great. 8/10.
Standout Track: Big Mouth or War Machine
Check ‘em out if you like: Ozzy Osbourne, Skid Row, Iommi.
1 – Deceived
2 – Shout it Out
3 – Feeder
4 – Fall from the Sky (Seagull)
5 – Wasted
6 – Slave
7 – Big Mouth
8 – War Machine
9 – Redeem Me
10 – Exquisite Tenderness.