Self-Titled

CD Cover Boneyard
Independent

Review by Kevin Templeton



45-second excerpt from "Nerves" (various formats)


Didn't the "bone" euphemism fade from the rock 'n roll picture soon after Andrew Wood/Mother Love Bone's posthumous release, Apple? Obviously not, because North Van's Boneyard have decided to go the skull-duggery route and shovel away at old and familiar territory on their new nine-song CD. Close your eyes for a second and imagine a traditional bar rock band playing classic metal covers from, say, the first Anthrax or Metallica albums. Now open your eyes and try to write about what you "heard" without sounding smug or crass like every other reviewer. Don't lie...

Boneyard certainly have the true-to-form metal/rock thing down pat; they aren't jumping on any trends, but they also don't really expand or stray from the aforementioned turf of one-dimensional, eager-sounding rock. Consider the chorus from "Getaway": "Getaway / I've got to get away from you / Getaway / I've gotta run away, it's true." Not really inventive stuff, unfortunately. "On the Porch" and the long-ish "Blind" end the disc on a positive note with some seriously cool instrumentation, but by then it's too late to save Boneyard's material from the fate of many other plain metal CDs: easily forgotten.


Artist Contact Info: 100 East 1st, P.O. Box 86611, North Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V7L 4L2




First published in Drop-D Magazine on August 22, 1997

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