Cole Montana

Cole

The Fiendz

Black Pumpkin Records, 1998

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 11/19/1998

There's something about East Coast punk rockers The Fiendz thatstrikes me as odd. One of the forefathers of the new punk movement,their latest disc, Cole, doesn't have as urgent of a sound that I would expectfrom bands in this genre.

Of course, seeing that Jerry Jones and crew have particularlygone out of their way to continually change and develop their soundwith each album, this would probably be taken as a high compliment.While the music on Cole is somewhat intriguing, the almost laid-back power-punkstyle is one that takes some time to get used to.

Lead vocalist/guitarist Jones, bassist Larry Assuntino,drummer/vocalist Joe Darone and guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist JoeMahoney are obviously a talented group of musicians, and The Fiendzis as tight a musical collaboration as one would expect to hear.(After over a decade together, the band should be.) Producer TimGilles (who also contributes backing vocals and other musicaltouches) knows this band's sound well; he's been involved with mostof the band's albums. (I would, however, have raised the treblelevel just a shade - no big deal.)

What is confusing about Cole is that it's musically all over the spectrum. Theopener, "Listen To Me," might make the listener think that they'reabout to settle down with an album of power pop. However, theaddition of horns to some songs ("Scene," "One I Dream About")almost gives the album a ska feel at times, even thoughrhythmically the songs weren't really ska.