Universal Dice - birth, love, hate, death
Written and
produced by Gerry Dantone, Universal Dice is an ambitious rock project and
their latest release birth, love, hate, death is being billed as a flat out
rock opera that throws back to the great work of everyone from Queen to The
Who. With 16 songs and none of them
sounding very much alike, even though certain muscular musical ideas and
serious lyrical themes that tackle life, death, love, loss, triumph and failure
tie the entirety of this record into a cohesive whole. Simply put, these songs belong with one
another and anybody that’s got a hankering for some forward thinking yet oddly classic,
blues-nuanced rock n’ roll is going to go buck wild for this release.
Songwriter/singer/bandleader
Dantone is joined by a host of rock-solid musicians including lead guitarist
Bob Barcus, bassist Eddie Canova and keyboardists Walt Sargent and Vincent
Crici that make for a very full, very powerful sound with a big, bold backbone
that hits hard more than it goes for the soft stuff (although the band is adept
at ANY mood). The album wanders between
full on rock n’ roll bangers to slithering blues guitar deviations to
poppy-inflected numbers that even bring home a few honest to goodness ballads
along the way.
The album starts
off with pure abandon as the full-on rocker, “Welcome to the World’s” road
ready, hard rock riffs go for broke only to simmer down to a slow boil for “I Wish
I Could Tell You This” late 70s, knife-edge power blues complete with
wah-soaked guitar licks and baroque organ playing. It’s a sonic one-two, opening punch that
kicks and sticks to the memory and practically cements the record as an instant
classic. Of course they still need to
maintain momentum beyond the intro couplet but these guys know their stuff and
maintain momentum they do. There are
some hints of Seger and other crunchy singer/songwriter legends on the crawly “Your
Son” which furthers those big, brutish blues-inflections, the overcast lifting
once again to provide some no-frills, riff-ready hard yet pop-leaned rock on
“The Prophet’s” mix of KISS and The Who.
“My Hands Are Tied” follows a similar strutting attack pattern but goes
for broke on the chorus harmony vocals, where a cosmic melody really twists the
tune into a slick sing-a-long number. I
think Dantone himself does all of the percussion programming for his group, but
only if you listen on close can you tell that the drumming is electronic and
not manually performed and it too enhances the record in this quirky, cool way
that perfectly works for the album’s epic intentions.
“Take Me Home”
is a real crunchy, crisp-riffed composition with some of the guitar-fury and
rhythmic heft lifting on the heavily piano enhanced, positively gorgeous vocal
musing and melodies of “Danielle.”
Again, these cats have far more sides and moods than the duo of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde… It seems that the
record never loses its peak moments and continually keeps cresting as it goes
from strength to strength. Whether
pulling off some keyboard/vocal tenderness with “Honestly” and soulful closer
“Forever,” or coming straight from the rock n’ roll gut on “I Love It When They
Hate It” and “Better Man,” Universal Dice can do absolutely nothing wrong on
this record. If you long for the days
when musical giants walked and ruled the Earth, then birth, love, death, hate
will be exactly the kind of sonic reminder you’ve been hoping to hear for
ages. What an album, what a band; highly
recommended!
David Shouse
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