Pearl – Pearl EP

artist website

Self-published
Produced by Joe Barresi

Still oddly unsigned Pearl Aday, daughter of Meat Loaf, other half of Scott Ian (Anthrax) and fully-fledged rock chick, has recorded her debut EP, with an album to follow, but it remains hard to acquire.

Having spent years singing backing vocals for Dad, and for Mötley Crüe on their 2000 ‘Maximum Rock’ tour, she eventually got together with Mother Superior to begin writing and recording her own material. The outcome, featuring Mother Superior and Scott Ian, is melodic hard rock in the vein of Velvet Revolver, who Pearl supported for select dates in the UK this year, McQueen and Backyard Babies.

Of the six tracks on this debut EP (the download version available from Amazon.com and iTunes lacks acoustic blues ballad Anything) radio single Nobody is the pick. Rock Child is a straight-ahead fast-paced rocker, Check Out Charlie has a great hard rock groove and some extra lead guitar from Ted Nugent, mellow Mama carries with it a Slash’s Snakepit Beggars And Hangers-On feel, then Nobody takes over.

Slightly longer than you’d expect a single to be (no doubt edited for radio) it starts softly, allowing Pearl to demonstrate the emotion she can carry in her slightly-husky voice before the chorus kicks off with a catchy rock groove. It’s the only song on the disc to carry a Scott Ian writing credit but there’s no telling whether that’s the difference or not.

Worth Defending is possibly the disc’s only weak link, being slightly too middle-of-the-road for a hard rock record, but it’s still a solid enough track with some neat lead guitar. Closer Anything is also a little too radio-friendly (both far more so than Nobody) but is an excellent bluesy ballad co-written with Los Angeles guitarist Nalle Colt (also of Ambrose and covers band 6 Foot Nurse with Ace Frehley drummer Scot Coogan) and featuring some additional lead guitar by Alice In Chains‘ Jerry Cantrell.

At the moment it doesn’t seem possible to buy CD copies of the EP, even though they do exist, so for now the five-track download is the only way to get Pearl’s music, which is a shame. Perhaps the CDs will be available at gigs, of which another round of UK club gigs is coming up in June. Either way these six tracks show great potential for the full album.

“ catchy rock groove ”

Tracklist: Rock Child / Check Out Charlie / Mama / Nobody / Worth Defending / Anything

Written by Andy Lye
More: EPs, Hard Rock, Unsigned, Pearl