Full Stack - Venus

by Paul Raven

published: 24 / 2 / 2007

Label: Full Stack Music Group
Format: CD

Well-performed, but strictly by numbers guitar rock from Minneapolis-based group Full Stack

Review

Full Stack make no attempts to rewrite any rule-books. They're a rock band from the 'beers, bikes and babes' school of song-writing. They've got some solid chops – the drums rumble and pound, guitars crunch and squeal, vocals growl and roar. The timing is tight, and the production is tidy - albeit a little thin, but that's only to be expected from a small-budget act. The songs contain all the regulation ingredients for balls-out up-to-eleven hard rock action. So it's disappointing to report that there's something missing – that magic spark that can't be described in words, the sense of effervescent adrenaline you get from a band that are utterly in love with what they do, and who are doing it for all they are worth. Don't misunderstand – 'Venus' is a solid little album, and the band clearly know their way around their instruments, as well as how a song is put together. But it feels like they're just going through the motions; it's a by-the-numbers parade of hooks and clichés that never seem to break free of the medium and take on a life of their own. There's no hunger, no taste of the blood sweat and tears all over the studio desk. Hard rock music has suffered at the hands of time, and has come to resemble Frankenstein's monster – unless it gets struck by that bolt from the blue, it lies still and cold on the slab like an inanimate collection of spare parts, regardless of the skill and craft with which it has been stitched together. Full Stack need to pay Igor some overtime, and head back to the lab to await the arrival of their own personal thunderstorm.