Adrenaline Mob – Adrenaline Mob

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Self-released
Produced by Mike Orlando

Often so-called “supergroups” tend to, at least for the most part, follow the style with which fans of the participating musicians will be familiar, but Adrenaline Mob don’t, at least when it comes to their highest-profile members, and listeners are going to have to have an open mind when listening to it. Every musicians knows, deep down, that’s asking a lot, and no matter what’s said about the band, there will be a huge portion of fans who simply can’t get on board with it.

This is basically down to the fact that Adrenaline Mob are not a progressive metal band, despite comprising Symphony X‘s Russell Allen on vocals and ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, alongside Stuck Mojo/Fozzy guitarist Rich Ward, Paul Di Leo on bass, and Mike Orlando on lead guitar. Even Rich Ward fans will find that the riffs here don’t entirely sound like his normal grooving stuff.

What Adrenaline Mob therefore do sound like is big riff, ultra-heavy modern metal but with wailing melodic solos and vocals from Allen which are a combination of his anger-filled voice on Paradise Lost and his more familiar melodic singing. The reason it’s all so different to begin with is the originating songs which started the project were the brain-child of Orlando, at the time working on Allen’s second solo album. When he played them to Russell, work was paused on his own album to finish those songs, bringing in Ward, Portnoy and Di Leo to complete the job and form the new band.

A lot of fans have dismissed Adrenaline Mob as simplistic modern metal akin to Godsmack (who they ended up touring with), and Disturbed, but that’s far from the case (except for Down To The Floor). The EP opens with the absolutely monstrous Psychosane, where huge riffs belie complex drums and a vocal performance from Allen dripping in aggression but very melodic in the choruses. It’s also probably the track with the most obvious Ward stamp on the guitars.

The mains riffs to Believe Me really aren’t all that dissimilar to Dream Theater’s heaviest parts, mixed with Disturbed, but the best thing about the song, besides more subtly complicated Portnoy drumming, are Allen’s fantastic verse vocal melodies. The chorus is slightly more standard fare but delivered just as well, running out to a blistering lead guitar finale. The complexity of Hit The Wall is unexpected but shows just what skill exists in this band, and anyone who thinks this sounds like mainstream modern metal really hasn’t listened to it and is just regurgitating internet message board banter. That said, the chorus vocal does recall SOiL quite readily.

The EP closes with the best, most faithful cover of Black Sabbath classic The Mob Rules ever recorded; a very fitting way to end a very good EP. Adrenaline Mob have achieved exactly what they set out to create with this fledgling effort. Heavy, grooving, catchy metal music. After a small amount of US touring, Allen embarks on a Symphony X European tour. Hopefully after that Adrenaline Mob will start work on a full album and wider tour.

“ huge riffs belie complex drums ”

Tracklist: Psychosane / Believe Me / Hit The Wall / Down On The Floor / The Mob Rules

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, EPs, Heavy Metal, Adrenaline Mob