McCready picks out blues inspired solo riffs and Sabbathy aggressive chords, often on top of each other. Mad Season actually benefits from the separation from and, thus, lack of comparison to the rest of the grunge family tree.
In hindsight, Mad Season give the impression of having been ahead of their time and less tied to the top forty of their day. Sure, had their actual debut been in instead of the band would feel like a throwback, but the question is, a throwback to when?
As a requiem for the band, Above also takes on a different tone. My pain is self-chosen. At the same time, the live discs both audio and video do just as fine a job of showcasing the energetic passion Mad Season had for their music and gratitude for their fans.
The band flows into different keys and tempos as one distorted, yet solidly linked unit as comfortable on their harmonious melodies as they are on their murky, walls of sound and their Who-like smashing of their amps, not for gratuitous spectacle, but for the effect on the sound itself.
The three Lanegan-centric bonus tracks are worthy inclusions far more than just curiosities. Changing their name to Mad Season an English expression for the time of year when hallucinogenic "psilocybin" mushrooms are in full bloom , the quartet set up shop at Seattle's Bad Animals recording studio, co-producing the subsequent sessions themselves along with Pearl Jam's sound engineer, Brett Eliason.
Mad Season gave fans a taste of their upcoming album by performing a pair of songs on Pearl Jam's Self-Pollution Radio program on January 8, , before the resulting ten-track album, Above, was officially issued in March.
A mix of melancholy ballads and hard rock, the album which also featured a few vocal contributions from Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan proved to be a gold-certified hit, just missing the U.
Top 20 while its leadoff single, "River of Deceit," became a major rock radio hit. Reportedly, songs were penned for another Mad Season album, which ultimately went unrecorded. Mad Season then supposedly thought about replacing Staley with Lanegan and changing their name to Disinformation , but no songs were recorded -- resulting in the musicians going their separate ways for good.
Sadly, this proved to be the final word on Mad Season as both Saunders and Staley would eventually die from drug overdoses. This one time project was rumored to have sequels, but was finished after Staley was found dead in and Baker died in of the same cause drug overdose. A quiet album that never got big, but was very much worthy of listening to because of it's deep lyrics and guitar harmonies are perfectly blended.
Probably the weirdest most shocking side project created as 'grunge and blues influenced album'. Mad Season consisted the best of Seattle. Certainly everyone thought that such a project would be great hard rocking riffs with harrowing harsh vocals by Staley.
But the album goes in a complete degree turn to a jazz-bluesy influenced music style with mostly acoustic ballads. If you want something jazzy, bluesy, and mellow this is the album for you.
The album starts off with a a minute of guitar chords and drumming which are very light and low. Then Staley starts singing completely different from his usual vocal power. Instead of using his harsh voice he uses a soothing-soft guided vocals throughout 'Wake Up'.
The 2nd track 'X-Ray Mind' is my favorite because of the quick intensity buildup between the drumming and guitar. McCready's guitar is really enjoyable and goes well with the song. Staley's voice is a little bit harsher but nothing close to his previous work.
Then as quickly as your into it your out and Staley's voice once again comes in. A great track and is one of the best on the album. The 3rd track ' River Of Deciet' is the only single from the album and starts off like 'Wake Up' but has a guitar that flows with Staley's voice very well.
Staley's voice really shines on this track and his lyrical talent is shown as he proves he isn't just the vocalist of the Alice In Chains but has songwriting skills as well.
Memorable verse is of course: "My pain is self-chosen At least, so the perfect says I could either burn or cut off my pride and buy some time Head full of lies is a wieght - tied to my waist" The third track; I'm Above' seems like you will finally have a grunge track feel to it only guitar , but soon slows down and gets softer. On this track McCready and Staley sing in harmony. Throughout the track they both sing the same verses and the drumming by Martin is perfect when the music speeds up in certain areas of the track.
Next, is 'Artifical Red' which was created during a Seattle club performance in minutes by Staley. The song really is a jam song, but later found it's way on the album. All members of the band take credit for this track and Staley's voice is great on parts of the song. The 6th track 'Lifeless Dead' unquestionably the most metal song on the album is driven in with McCready's great guitar and Staley's same-tempoed voice, but someone keeps interested in the song.
Especially McCready's luring guitar keeps you into the song. Staley's loudest performance on the album, which isn't a loud one at all.
The next track 'I Don't Know Anything' sounds like an Alice In Chain's influenced song lyrically , but shows the repetitiveness isn't always bad. The next track 'Long Gone Day' is very much influenced by Baker's past.
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