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9/17/2003
“Rage” from the CD
“…Other Neat Tricks” (Live)
It’s always an interesting experience to hear music stripped down to its elemental acoustic core, especially rock. It takes a good artist to convey the power often found in full instrumentation, and to recreate that power with only a single voice and guitar. Lenn Marella apparently has that kind of control over his music, his voice and his guitar playing.
The Rage, as found on his website is a stripped down acoustic rendition of what most certainly must be a grandiose hard / perhaps prog-rock composition. While Lenn’s vocal powers are evident, the power is there. The sense of phrasing is there. And the emotive qualities are there.
Lenn Marella is not without pedigree. He grew up playing along the Sunset Strip in Hollywood as a younger musician. Today it seems he makes his home in the Pacific Northwest, content to play the local haunts and sell merchandise via his rather well designed website. Influenced by all manner of hard rock bands, Lenn captures much of the angst and power found in songs by Tantric and other modern hard rock outfits, without necessarily sounding campy about it all. He’s been out there tangling with the beast awhile, and I’m sure he’ll be around a bit longer judging by the strengths in this song.
Dealing with subjects like rage is not easy. Rage is an emotion that consumes the behavior of those feeling it, un-relentlessly bearing down on the mind and heart until something snaps. Lenn sings emphatically about the rage he sees in someone else, especially in lines like: “the downside sweeps in like a wave. Depression, compression, thoughts of the grave.. For you nothing is what it seems, Delusional logic, and Lithium dream”s. Not bad stuff.
~Chris K.
Gods of Music
www.godsofmusic.com