MG71 - multiple-album review
"The Truth Hurts"/"Laid To Rest"/ "Back To The Roots"

Madrid's Miguel Gayarre, guitarist of Braindead Zero, has spent the last year building an impressive catalog of solo work under the name of MG71.

One year, three full albums worth of work, each with a distinctly different style. He's already built a hell of an impressive following (see box, left) and came to us asking for the legendary METAL-i/Noise Matters judgement so we let The Bulldog off his leash with a mission to play all three albums at apocalyptic volumes, scare the neighbours, and put his pawprint on a review. So, as soon as you've finished your Cholesterol Death Burger, big Dawg...

Grr.. don't touch my burger.. MINE! BARK!!! Eh? Oh sorry... yes.. the review... Well I'll review these three in the order Miguel released them, so first up is "The Truth Hurts". It's an industrial-strength grindy alternative kick, bit of Fear Factory with a bit of Zombie blended for good measure. Miguel's vocals are in English before anyone asks, and easy 'nuff to follow, hell it's clearer than a lot of vocalists who have English as their first language (ducks incoming complaints!). The ten tracks on "The Truth Hurts" are all impressive, Miguel's own background as a producer no doubt helping the excellent highly-polished production values, with some solid arranging underpinning the solid musicianship and the growly snarl don't-fuck-with style of vocal. It's damn difficult to pick a real stand-out track on this album 'cos they're ALL good, but the head-booting aggression of "Ballad For A Loser" had me smiling and nodding along as I wrote my notes for the review, thinking of a few people I know who are losers and who the song would be appropriate to play to. The spoken-word samples blend in perfectly, gives it a bit of a Ministry edge (circa "New World Order"). Having said that, love the simplicity of "All Of A Sudden", a repetetive but great riff and beat that would cause a rock club's mosh-floor to fill in seconds. Far from all simple though, 'cos then you get hit with "Whispers", a complex and melodic-but-potently-heavy storm of sound which might not fill the mosh-floor but would have everyone nodding along while they fuel up for the next mosh with more beer.

Next up on the list is the second MG71 release, "Laid To Rest", which Miguel describes as "old school metal". Now, old school metal isn't my specialty, it can sometimes be a bit difficult for me to review without seeming a bit biased, being the punk/goth/grunge/alt-industrial canine that I am. Once playing though, it's not that differenf in style to "The Truth Hurts", a few more guitar solos perhaps and the drum style is thrashier. That's probably a better tag for it than "old school metal", this is thrash. Miguel's vocals are less growled or snarled here, but again not that different from on the first album. The Pantera influence perhaps shows through a bit more here, less Fear Factory than MG referenced on "..Truth..", and the influence of Anselmo's legendary masters of noise can be felt on the tracks "Untouchable" and "Revelation". Once again, the quality of "Laid To Rest", in terms of production values, can't be faulted at all. Perhaps the music style's not to everyone's taste however, but hell if if came on at the club you'd stick around to hear some more, and you'd probably ask the DJ who the band was. It does grow on ya though, you'd consider buying the album given a chance to. I'll pick "Subliminal Message" and "Revelation" as my tracks of choice from this album. Might have escaped your attention so far, but the fact Miguel plays EVERYTHING on all the MG71 albums makes it damn impressive. Need to clone him so he can do a live show, 'cos I think that would be fucking stunning to see. With the Pantera referencing in the guitar and vocal style, it's no surprise to see on his Myspace that one of Miguel's heroes is the much-missed Dimebag Darrell. "Laid To Rest" could be seen in that respect to be part hero-worship, part tribute to the great man himself, and from that angle it's a fitting tribute. A better tribute surely to show what you've learned from being a fan of Dimebag as Miguel Gayerre has done here, rather than to merely cover his previous work as so many others do. For that, MG71 gets much respect.

Third and last - for now - is the "Back To The Roots", described by Miguel as "pure groove metal". I'm embarassed to say I had to go look up what "groove metal" is - hey, there's so many genres of metal now that I get easily confused and forget which is which! *grrrr!*. Anyway, armed with the knowledge of what groove metal is, let's get this review of "Back To The Roots" written. This is the best of both worlds from the first two albums, taking the best of the hardcore/ crossover/ thrash styles, with bite-size references both conscious and sub-conscious to the likes of Machine Head, more Pantera, White Zombie and Sepultura. Some fantastic riffage going on in album opener "Self Determination", and continues right throughout the subsequent tracks. You could keep a mosh-floor happy with this for the duration. There's a sludginess to the guitar work on this album, but it's far from the slowed-down sludgecore sound instead keeping it fast and power-loaded with each layer seamlessly supportive and complimentary to every other, from instrument to vocal. This album seems to find the Rock Appreciation Centre of your brain, and if you can't mosh along to it (maybe you're listening to it on a train or bus) then you'll at least be nodding along to it, even singing along to yerself. Standouts on this album are, for me, are the gorgeously groove-sludge (it's a new genre!!) anthem "How Many Times" - which had me bouncing all round the damn room! - and the vastly-different but equally powerful "Heretic" and "The Pledge".

There's nothing bad to say here, can't fault Miguel Gayarre for hitting up a different style with each album either, he's not the first to do it and won't be the last, but what makes these three albums stand out is the fact that Gayarre is a one-man production machine. Most bands can't put out a single album of this sort of quality in 3 YEARS, never mind three albums IN a single year! Major credit due all round on this one. With a fourth FULL album due out anytime now, titled "Condemned", this guy's one to watch and we'll get that review of Condemned up when it's available for review. Looking forward to it. In the meantime, check out MG71 at the links in the box to the upper left or click the live-text on the images, and get that volume cranked up. If you're at work, fuck the boss (not literally unless it's a cute boss), turn it up anyway. On the strength of these, MG71 - be it Miguel on his own or with a recruited band - deserves to be a success.

NoiseMatters rated
The Truth Hurts: (5/5)
Laid To Rest: (4/5)
Back To The Roots: (4/5)