MOURNING
WIDOWS - Furnished
Souls for Rent
Nuno Bettencurt:
Guitar
'Furnished Souls for Rent' is Nuno Bettencourt's Mourning Widows second album.
All Automatic starts the cd and is a declaration of intents: modern rock with distorted guitars, no frills. Nuno is singin' too, and his voice is a good one, as he prooved also in his Extreme era, when he sang background vocals too. There's a solo too, but don't expect the composed solos he played in Pornograffitti. The lead lines sound much more improvised and raw.
No Regrets features again distorted , chunky guitars and a strong chorus. Nuno also reminds us why he was considered the father of 'funk-metal': just listen to some of the muted-strings passages he plays here and there all over the album and you'll discover why he's one hell of a rhythm player too. His wrist serves the song in several way, not just by playin' fast solos. The chorus in this album are very strong and have melodies that will remain in your head immediately.
Upsidedownside has another poundin' line followed by a more spoken verse. Another good song.
667 has a funkified metal riff that gets back great memories. Wha injected solo with wide vibratos. The man can still play solos, that's sure.
The Air That You Breathe features a funny, ultra processed intro and a powerchord riff. POWERFUL. Whammy solo WAY outside the fretboard.
Fuck You. The title says it all. A ballad??? =)
Space features a softer approach. Sounds very much like alternative rock band. But this band can play.
Angerexia takes us back to , well, angry feelings. Cool harmonics trick at 0:21, listen also to the accelerated pickin' right before it: an avalanche goin' to get you.
More metallifunk with Monkey Paw. One of the best song of the album. I love the chorus.
The Swing is a metal swing that sounds like 'Extreme goes nu-metal'. The vocal in the verse reminds me of Michael Jackson: dunno why, I think I'm just mad =)
War Paint is probably my fave one. Great song with a great chorus. Cool solo too.
Furnished Souls for Rent closes the album with the same angry feel of the whole bunch. Another melodic chorus.
Great album IMHO. Sounds like the modern rock band, with simple riffs
and distorted guitars all over the place,
but with some rhthmic twists that show the true value of Bettencourt.
Forget about the superproduction of Extreme II and III, and the only
bad thing about the cd is, in my opinion,
the lack of great solos that brought Nuno to the attention of every
guitar mag in the world at the beginnin' of the 90's. This album would
have been PERFECT with solos à la 'Get the funk out' or 'He-Man
Woman Hater'.
They would have been maybe a little out of place in an album like this,
but i believe that Nuno would have found the way to make them fit.
Please Nuno come back to the lead to rescue guitar from the all-rhythm
alternative and nu-metal rock!
Rating: 9
(reviewed by Max)