Tara Lynch – “Evil Enough”
4th April 2019 0 By Gavin GriffithsYour bandâs debut album is always a big deal; youâve spent months, sometimes a couple of years grinding away, playing small shows, dropped a demo, a single or an EP and you scrimped and saved your money for some proper studio time. You give it everything youâve physically and financially got, and when the mixing and production is finished, and you can finally say youâve done it; youâve made an album. All thatâs left then is you have to worry about if anyone will actually be interested in even buying the damn thing!
This is typical with the vast majority of artists, but what if youâre a little more privileged? No I donât mean some talent show hack-fraud thatâs given some lucrative contract for doing some karaoke every weekend on [Insert TV channel here], but what if youâre already an incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist and singer in your own right, but just so happen to be able to call upon some of the most accomplished and respected names in rock and metal to help you out too? Well this is the situation TARA LYNCH finds herself in!
With her years of experience as a writer and composer going back to her childhood, sheâs recently put all her attention to recording and releasing her very own debut album which features a plethora of impressive collaborators. Weâre talking musicians that have worked alongside ALICE COOPER, DIO, BILLY IDOL, OZZY OSBOURNE and more! Surely, with that level of talent in one place, this album has to be incredible no? Letâs find out as we see whether or not Tara is in fact âEvil Enoughâ to make this workâŠ
We open up with the title track and itâs straight into the typically creepy clichĂ©s of sinister cackling and laughter with the haunted wails of what appears to be ghost children in the background, before we get things underway with some generally lethargic riffs and generic metal. Vocally itâs interesting however, I didnât expect Tara to sound like thatâŠoh wait no, sorry, my bad, itâs just Mark Boals from YNGWIE MALMSTEEN providing dual vocals on track one. Yep, right away weâve got a major collaboration and itâs just thrust out there from the very first lyric! The chorus is OK, itâs got a reasonably enjoyable hook and a brooding tone but itâs really quite a sluggish track quite sadly. âAntidoteâ seem to take forever to get going with an indulgent 1-minute guitar intro before we get any vocals and itâs really just another down-tempo metal offering. Taraâs vocals fleet between slightly husky and soaring, and when she belts her notes out this song is at its best as musically, as metal goes it is pretty blasĂ©âŠ
Did I mention indulgent guitar just now? I need to apologize again, as what I thought was indulgence previously is nothing compared to âExit The Warriorâ. Weâre on track three and already we have an instrumental session of fret-wankeryâŠitâs an enjoyable piece of music donât get me wrong, and it builds itself around s decent guitar solo, but so early on? Itâs as though Tara is impatient and wants to do all her tricks straight away, I know itâs your debut but youâve got ten tracks here, this can wait surely? Iâm just nit-picking now, whatâs nextâŠâKringeworthyâ. Are you fucking kidding me? âKringeworthyââŠIâm doing more than cringing right now, weâre on face-palm levels of what the fuckery, whatâs with the spelling?! The song itself is for the most part some sort of metal ballad that picks up near its climax with a flurry of guitar which salvages SOMETHING I think but, come onâŠI canât get over that title, I need to move onâŠmaybe things will improve.
NOPEâŠI was wrong, as we also have âGui-Tara Risesâ. Do you get it? Itâs her nickname, because her name is Tara, and she plays guitarâŠso sheâs gui-tara! Itâs genius isnât it! NoâŠno itâs not, itâs what you might call fucking KRINGEWORTHY! And the rises bit? While you might imagine that, idealistically itâs meant to represent something like a phoenix rising majestically through the fire and flames, sheâs however instead rising slowly, like a lump of dough in a bread making process. Another pretentious instrumental and more run of the mill metal.
Are there any highlights on this album at all? âUnbreakableâ is a fine slab of up-tempo heavy metal delivered well with plenty of swagger sure but, everything else is, frankly boring. I mean OK as traditionally inspired heavy metal goes it ticks all the usual boxes, and itâs been produced well tooâŠbut so much of it just feels so SLOW. Thereâs a lot of emphasis on too many instrumental pieces for a ten-track album and itâs bordering on Zakk Wylde levels of self-adoration, damnit just marry your guitar already! The initial question was, is Tara Lynch actually evil enough, as suggested by the album title…well one answer is yes, if itâs to be a villain in Jem And The Holograms or somethingâŠother than that, not really no. The boring metal is boring.
Score: 3 / 10
Track List:
- “Evil Enough”
- “Antidote”
- “Exit The Warrior”
- “Kringeworthy”
- “Banished From My Kingdom”
- “Gui-Tara Rises”
- “Unbreakable”
- “Enigmatic”
- “Trustless”
- “Feckless Lock”
Record Label:
Cargo Records
Release Date:
March 1st (Out Now)
For all things Tara Lynch, click HERE and to purchase the album, click HERE
About the author
Gavin Griffiths AKA GavTheGothicChav 31 Based In South Wales Favourite Bands: HIM, The 69 Eyes, Paradise Lost, CKY, Rise Against, Alkaline Trio, Type-O-Negative, Turbonegro, Depeche Mode... Enjoys: Pizza, Jack Daniel's, Comedy Roasts, WWE, Horror Movies, Sloths, Panda's, Eurovision Dislikes: The Concept Of Being "Offended", Hype, Instrumental Tracks, Interludes, Overly Long Tracks