BravePicks 2021 - DANKO JONES' Power Trio #25
December 6, 2021, 3 years ago
As the world continues to battle a virus, we present the ultimate escape! It is time to celebrate our BravePicks 2021! Heavy metal is the ultimate diversion, so let's let the music do the talking. It is time to unveil our annual BravePicks countdown, where the devout scribes at BraveWords cast their votes at the hits and misses of the year! So who will be our #1? You’ll find out as we count down the BravePick Of 2021 each day in December!
Everybody has an opinion and it’s time for ours! And stay tuned in January for the writers’ individual Top 20s (new studio albums ONLY), Top 5 Brave Embarrassments (a fan favorite!), What/Who Needs To Stop In 2022? and Metal Predictions For 2022. All will be showcased come the New Year!
First up, the best of the best for 2021 begins NOW!
BravePicks 2021
25) DANKO JONES – Power Trio (Bad Taste)
Simplicity is everything. Canadian destroyer Danko Jones returned with the aptly title Power Trio with balls to the wall rock and shock. Celebrating a robust 25 years in the scene, the rockers continue their thundering wall of sound with focused songwriting that gets straight to the point. Power Trio earns the #25 spot on our countdown with its unrelenting energy and infectious guitar hooks.
An excerpt of a BraveWords feature: Power Trio doesn't betray Jones' initial reluctance to get down to business. Nothing on the record sounds forced or phoned in; it's the trademark no bullshit rock n' roll fans expect from a Danko Jones record.
"There were four or five song ideas that we had before the pandemic that made the record - just riffs - so everything was written during the lockdown," Jones says of the lockdown songwriting process. "We also had a lot of time to really live with the songs longer than we usually do and over-analyze small parts. I really went deep on my guitar solos, not like I'm Marty Friedman or Yngwie Malmsteen (laughs), but instead of rushing through my solos like I've done in the past, I crafted solos that lived alongside the main riff of a song."
"Usually, I throw in a guitar riff and we jam on it, and the songs goes wherever it goes. In some respects it was the same process for Power Trio, where I would send riffs to JC and he would figure out which ones we could work with. Then there was 'Ship Of Lies', where the whole thing was written and arranged by JC. I wrote the vocal melodies and the lyrics for that song but the whole musical pass was all JC.
"And even though we had the time to write we made sure to keep the album relatively short. I think 11 songs is more than enough. The temptation to overindulge is high with rock bands but not with us. I'd rather enjoy 15 minutes of really good rock rather than 45 minutes and trying to find the 15 that are any good (laughs)."
BravePicks 2021 Top 30
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25) DANKO JONES - Power Trio (Bad Taste)
26) DARKTHRONE - Eternal Hails (Peaceville)
27) SMITH/KOTZEN – Smith/Kotzen (BMG)
28) TODD LA TORRE - Rejoice In The Suffering (Rat Pak)
29) KK’S PRIEST – Sermons Of The Sinner (EX1)
30) ASPHYX - Necroceros (Century Media)
