There is a lot to be said for wearing your heart on your sleeve. And that goes for the sonic heart too. Perhaps even more so. Be proud of who you are and the music that you love and don’t let anyone tell you any different. It’s an argument that Immortalizer makes most eloquently and does so not through words or rhetoric but through the persuasive power of rock ‘n’ roll – chunky riffs, industrial-strength grooves, foot on the monitor swagger, and fist in the air confidence. You know, the very DNA of what rock ‘n’ roll is all about.
Cut Loose is unabashed, classic rock of the finest order. Forget all of the recent reinventions by skinny-jeaned, fashion-line endorsed kids with complicated hair and music that has been precisely worked out by a team of record label accountants that goes under the name of alt-rock. This is the real deal.
And if Immortalizer, a.k.a multi-instrumentalist and all-round good egg Dave D.R, has never been shy of infusing the music he weaves with the echoes of the great and good of the genre past, he does so in a way that adds to the canon rather than just repeats it. Cut Loose certainly bristles with Dio-era Black Sabbath vibes before kicking into gear and heading even deeper into classic rock and, dare I say it, New Wave of British Heavy Metal, territory.
Rock, metal, call it what you will, already contains all of the necessary building blocks for artists like Immortalizer to be able to create great music without having to overcomplicate the issue by borrowing from other genres or trying to refashion this one. And why try to be too clever when you can be this big, this engaging, this infectious. I’m not saying that rock ‘n’ roll is short on smarts but it is to the point, no-nonsense and direct. If it is simple it is because it chooses to be so, knowing that its straight-to-the-point approach is what makes it so effective.
Cut Loose is effective. Damn effective. It looks you straight in the eye whilst it sucker-punches you into submission and once you get back up on your feet, you realise that you are hooked. Hooked by the grunt and groove of the rhythmic guitar salvos. Hooked by the deft and dexterous soloing. Hooked by the driving backbeats and thunderous basslines. Hooked by the anthemic lyrics, both poignant and powerful. Hooked by…well, just hooked. Everything about it beckons you to react, mosh, boogie, dance, roar, rage…whatever feels right for you. It’s both an anthem to individuality and a reminder that you need to live the life that makes you happy. Life doesn’t come with a dress rehearsal, this is it so be true to yourself.
All we need now is for Dave D.R. to clone himself four times, form a band of hard-rocking doppelgangers and tour the world. It’s not much to ask. Is it? I mean, science can do some amazing things these days so you never know!
