Dissident Alliance

When you've taken the plunge from a sultry and (presumably) attractive metal raven carving up a band in a blown out urban space or leading the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, to a computer generated minefield floating in lava from the dawn of terrible 3D graphics generation, there is clearly something amiss with your career. Dissident Alliance is another of those laughable 90s mistakes in which a traditional metal band would reach far from their modus operandi into new territory, an attempt to 'branch out' or run with the times that would ultimately pan out as one of the most awkward in the USPM realm, at the very least, and one wonders exactly where and how the decade between the excellent Ample Destruction and this atrocity was spent...

After their debut EP and album in '83-'84, the band did actually record a more natural follow-up, the ill fated Chain of Command, in '87. However, it was not actually released until 2004, when the band were already well into their comeback phase and held some tout. In the intervening 80s, the band produced a few demos which would also avoid exposure, after which they vanished for very near a decade. Jag Panzer would return in 1994 with an official sophomore effort through Pavement Music and a new lineup, with Rikard Stjernquist replacing Hilyard, Chris Kostka replacing guitar icon Joey Taffola, and most disturbingly, Daniel J. Conca, a virtual unknown replacing the legendary Harry Conklin in the vocal booth. Conca had spent some time with the East Coast thrash band Gothic Slam, but did not appear on either of their albums, so one can hardly cite him as lacking any experience, but he was simply incapable of stepping into such brilliant shoes, and his deep, crude thrash vocal approach is one of the primary reasons this album is such a stinking, fecal mass.

But there's a bigger reason, and that is that the remaining original band members (Mark Briody and John Tetley) had lost their fucking minds! Dissident Alliance is essentially a poor excuse for a thrash album, with only faint traces of the traditional power metal virtues that dominated their prior output. Yet this is not simply content to be a poorly written thrash record with moron riffs you could catch from any random neighborhood band, in any random bar on a Friday evening during the early 90s fallout of this beloved genre, the offenders blissfully unaware that they were well past 'on the way out', doing nothing of note or value to reverse this dire fortune. What's more, Dissident Alliance is not simply CONTENT with this fate. No, it attempts to screw around with other musical genres like alternative hippie rock and tribal blues ("Forsaken Child") or moody progressive rock (the intro to "Spirit Suicide"). Shockingly, these actually prove to be some of the better moments of the disc, because at least they're not as annoying as the shoddy thrash that dominates so much of the bloated, nearly 60 minute length.

The first mistake is that the album shoves some of its less idiotic metal numbers into the aft positions. "GMV 407" has a few genuine seconds of classic Panzer wound about its thrashing heart, spikes of melodic force breaking through the crust of dull earth before the solo, though here the Taffola presence is clearly noticed since the lead blows. With Harry Conklin at the helm, "The Church" might have turned out a reasonable offering: the riffs are hardly inspiring, but it carries forward that cruel certainty of the previous releases, and the simple, crisp melodic surge in the bridge is not offensive. "Whisper God" is burdened by a lame verse with a bluesy, soon forgotten swagger, but the first :15 seconds showed potential. I mentioned "Spirit Suicide" already, which opens with melancholic acoustics, sparse percussion and slowly swelling synthesizers. But the most striking anomaly is that Conca provides his most elegant and worthy vocal lines on the entire album here, and continues to carry on throughout the track. Why couldn't this side of the man be spread throughout the album? Who would have known?

Now, before I sent mixed signals, let me establish that none of this later material is actually worth slogging through the album's early contents to arrive at, but it shows that the record, while tragic and terrible, does level itself out, find a groove and expose that the band were still capable of ideas that did not entirely suck. Unfortunately, we've got to get there first, wading through embarrassing stomp/thrash like "Jeffrey/Behind the Gate", full of horrible nu-groove thrash rhythms that even your local Pantera wannabes from 1994 would scoff at. "The Clown" teases with a slightly acceptable power/thrashing, until the verse arrives and Conca stumbles over himself with horrid, almost rapped lyrics that lead into the nasal chorus:

Little boy, little boy, tell me true
Johnny does the nasty, do you know who?
Little boy, little boy, did you cry?
Momma’s gone away, daddy tell a lie

"Forsaken Child" follows, perhaps the strangest piece here, all driving acoustic guitars, tribal drumming, and it evokes memories of university drum circles strung out on angel dust and folk records, with a rock structure to the guitars. Without vocals, this might have actually sufficed as as a decent piece of music, but as soon as Conca starts whispering all 'sexy' like or putting the same emotion in his voice that later functions well within "Spirit Suicide", it becomes very hard to take seriously. The stylistic deviance is not at fault, but it stands out here like some failed experiment to explore the band's alternative influences, and when the down-tuned vocals hail the entrance of "Edge of Blindness", a weak and repetitive mid-paced thrasher, the album has already become too much to bear. "Eve of Penance" throws away a promising intro with a weak, charging thrash tempo, and "Last Dying Breath" sounds like John Bush-era Anthrax with a bit more sneer to it, and lyrics like:

Widow bitch, ya gonna die
A devils whore, bitch tell a lie
A season’s witch, infidelity
Tricky little bitch, insanity

You might have noticed that this record came as quite the shock to a fan of the band's original lineup. It's not completely devoid of value, and will surprise you on the rare occasion that a riff still stands out, or Conca steps above himself and delivers a few acrid lines. Perhaps with some further vocal direction, he might have been a good thrash or death metal singer, as there is suitable vitriol when he reaches into the lower, 'smoker' range, but even if he was Rob fucking Halford on this record, it would not have saved the abysmal, uninspired compositions that dominate so much of its time in the stereo. Dissidence Alliance is clearly produced, with some extra fuzz to the guitars, but the drums feel inadequate and the few leads poorly integrated and mixed alongside the backdrop.

In the end, its another example of how the 90s were 'death' for most traditional metal bands, unless you knew exactly where to look. No wonder the more extreme metal genres flourished so in these bleak years; those of us who were worshipers of the edgier 80s material had our expectations flogged to incurable, and needed a fix of brutality to floss out the stains of an album like Dissident Alliance. Like many others, Jag Panzer took a chance and simply bet on the wrong color, when there was really nothing wrong with the band to begin. They would come to their senses just a few years after this, returning Conklin and Tafolla to the lineup and inking a deal with Century Media that would stoke the most productive phase of their career, but as they say, the stain remains.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Jag Panzer was a profound and yet such an unstable band up until 1997, so it seemed. For 16 years the band under went a few drastic changes, enough to make you think their four full length releases up until 1997 could have all been from different bands. The Tyrants EP came out with an incredibly strong NWOBHM influence all over it topped off with a lot of aggression and dark energy. From their they changed things up a little bit creating their own sound, and unleashed the ancient power metal album "Ample Destruction". Rightfully regarded as a classic by many. After this they came up with "Chain of Command", which was still a great album, but lacked the dark and enforcing attitude that their previous material had. All of these releases were incredible, regardless of the changes in their style, sound, and lineups. Then its 1994, a time when the majority of metal had died off and some older bands ruined themselves even further, with their striving efforts to follow the mainstream. It appears that Mark Briody was perhaps really influenced by mid-Metallica's evolution and Nirvana here, and thought he'd take Jag Panzer into this disastrous direction. Or perhaps a better example would be comparing Sanctuary to Nevermore. The change here is way too drastic and for the worst. Seriously, is this Nine Inch Nails?

Vocalist Daniel J. Conca (RIP), is the single most powerful element that literally destroys this album. I can't even imagine how Mark Briody signed him up for the band, then again its just obvious this isn't the Jag Panzer any of us know. What was Mark Briody thinking? Conca pretty much makes James Hetfield look like Bruce Dickinson. He has next to no range, and the majority of the vocals seem grumbled into the mic. They seem too close and come out too scruffy. He absolutely does not fit here at all, and wouldn't even pass for a good vocalist on the sloppiest of thrash bands.

The production continues to make this album suffer beyond imaginable. The mix is terrible, everything sounds too close and claustophobic. The guitar tone is just too heavy for its own good and turns out to sound extremely sloppy, causing the rhythm's to flow like a big chunky muddy river. Is that the bass? Its hard to tell if its even in here. The drums are decent, but again it all feels too close together and just doesn't sound right at all. What a mess.

As for the music itself, the songs here are extremely sloppy themselves. Even feeling unfinished at times and a lot of the rhythm's and structures don't seem to go anywhere. Saying this album is 'boring' is simply an understatement, because its just downright unbearable. The most memorable part of this album for me was part of an intro, during Eve of Penance from 1:40 to 2:20. The potential and possibilities there seem endless, but they're taken nowhere. Again, an intro was the most memorable part of this album for me! ... In agreement with the former reviewers, the only worthwhile songs on here I'd say would probably be Edge of Blindness, Last Dying Breath, Spirit Suicide, and GMC 407. And still these are hardly passable as 'good' tracks and probably aren't something you'll remember at all after listening to them. Some of the solo's and random harmonies here and there are great, but don't really save the album. The other songs miss the mark by miles, you're better off not even hearing them.

I just had to hear this album for myself. Thankfully the previous reviews about this derogatory piece and the general image that it gets is all over out there, so it wasn't all too shocking or anything. I'm just furthering the message to stay clear away from this. The irony, Jag Panzer gets my only 100% rating, and then they get my lowest. Even for the diehard fans who have to own everything they've released, its probably best off we just all pretend this doesn't even exist.

Diarrhea.

This album has been cited by many Jag Panzer fans and Metal fans in general as one of the greatest disappointments in music history, and rightfully so.

It’s still unimaginable that one of the best metal bands of all time could produce such a worthless piece of crap. Although the foundation for a few good songs must have been there, as proven by the reworkings of “Edge Of Blindness”, “Spirit Suicide”, “The Church” and “Forsaken Child” (although the last one ended up a totally different song) for the “Decade Of The Nail-Spiked Bat” compilation, it was just by no means visible. While the remakes on “Decade…” don’t have to hide behind all the classics, the originals are just plain dull.

And even if there’s a good part now and then (“The Clown” is actually quite a good song - although the verses are little reminiscent of “Three Little Pigs”), the whole thing is ruined by the production (especially the guitars sound terrible) and, above all, Daniel Conca’s voice.

Luckily Jag Panzer would return to form 3 years later on their glorious comeback “The Fourth Judgement”.