RUSSELL ALLEN
Russell Allen's Atomic Soul
Inside Out Music 2005
www.symphonyx.com

What’s the 4-1-1?
Symphony X frontman tries the solo thing.

Genre
Hard rock / metal / prog-metal / blues-based rock

The Good
“Blackout” rocks with a sweet blues riff jacked up to 10. Allen spews like a man full of emotion and soul. A repetitive, chunky riff and a stinging guitar solo are only a couple of the highlights from “Unjustified”. “Voodoo Hand” has Allen delivering with quick, cock-sure vocals mixed with some dual harmonies that shine over a blues-rock back beat…complete with cowbell! Russell shows that you can’t take the prog-metal out of him with his keyboard solo.

“Gaia” slows the tempo down to a metal crawl. Allen focuses on exposing his melodic chops. “Loosin’ You” is a straight-up, bluesy rocker that’s right out of the seventies rock catalog. Allan drops some gritty vocals here. Clocking in at 8+ minutes, The inspirational power ballad “We Will Fly” starts off with trippy, clean guitar tones followed by eighties style synths and piano. Two minutes in you get hit with the fury. This epic continues to build to an overpowering chorus.

The Bad
Nothing notable.

The Verdict
It seems everyone is doing the seventies thing nowadays, and Russell Allen says ‘why not me’. On Russell Allen’s Atomic Soul, Allen channels his inner Glenn Hughes by drawing on his childhood influences to deliver a classic sound, with more distortion and crunch behind it.

Did You Know?
Michael Romeo and Michael Pinella of Symphony X help both contributed to Russell Allen’s Atomic Soul.

Rating: out of 5

Related reviews:
Symphony X - The Odyssey

--George Dionne