{"id":11131,"date":"2013-01-13T00:00:25","date_gmt":"2013-01-13T00:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=11131"},"modified":"2013-06-01T14:45:20","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T14:45:20","slug":"album-review-maxine-petrucci-back-to-the-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-maxine-petrucci-back-to-the-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"MAXINE PETRUCCI – Back To The Garden (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

MAXINE PETRUCCI
Back To The Garden<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nAngelina (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Guitar demigod Maxine Petrucci returns with her third solo effort, Back To The Garden<\/em>. While she is likely best known for her short-lived work as guitarist for cult faves Madam X (which also counted Skid Row\u2019s Sebastian Bach on bass and drummer Roxy Petrucci, of Vixen fame, among their members), her solo albums are monsters when it comes to heavy guitars. <\/p>\n

Back To The Garden<\/em> is a hard album to put in perspective. It\u2019s all over the place, as most guitar led works are. The focus here is obviously her playing ability. While one moment it\u2019s a straight-ahead 80s rocker with rippin\u2019 solos, the next it\u2019s a spiral descent into heavy darkness akin to bands like L7 or Eva O. <\/p>\n

If you are looking for that classic Madam X sound then Petrucci throws you a couple of bones on this album. \u2018Assassinate\u2019, \u2018WTF\u2019, and the duo of \u2018Sacred\u2019 and \u2018Harsh My Gig\u2019 that end the album, sound like a grown up Petrucci but still have that teenage flare that has kept the band in our memories for so long. \u2018Ginger Man\u2019 even has a southern flare to it with some piano and a borderline boogie drive. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the darker side of this album that becomes so fascinating though, strongly reminding me of Eva O vocally (particularly her work on Shadow Project\u2019s self-titled 1990 debut album). The title track is insanely strange musically (think Alice In Wonderland<\/em> as a hippie musical) blending heavy guitars with clunky grooves and high register vocals that are just really, really creepy.<\/p>\n

\u2018Wicked\u2019 has an old world flare that reminds me a bit of what Blackmore\u2019s Night could be if Ritchie Blackmore would let his inner Deep Purple shine through. \u2018Pink Angels\u2019 stands as close to a ballad as you get here going back and forth between an acoustic piece with a mid-tempo anthem style drive. <\/p>\n

But the weak link here, are the vocals. I hated them at first but over a few listens they grew on me for sure. Petrucci\u2019s vocals are an acquired taste to start with and she makes a run at being way more creative on this batch of tunes. You have to let it sink in for awhile but once it does it really fits as an odd musical companion to the album\u2019s peace and love themes. <\/p>\n

Overall, this is a very, very good album if you are looking for something that sounds really different from anything else. The first temptation is to, of course, associate this with every 80s band you can think of but Petrucci systematically stomps those expectations out without crushing you all at once. <\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MAXINE PETRUCCIBack To The Garden Angelina (2013)Rating: 8\/10 Guitar demigod Maxine Petrucci returns with her third solo effort, Back To The Garden. While she is likely best known for her short-lived work as guitarist for cult faves Madam X (which also counted Skid Row\u2019s Sebastian Bach on bass and drummer Roxy Petrucci, of Vixen fame, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,565],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-maxine-petrucci"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11131"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12078,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11131\/revisions\/12078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}