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The Jelly Jam - The Jelly Jam


*
=Staff's pick

I Can't Help You*
No Remedy
Nature*
Nature's Girl
Feeling*
Reliving
The Jelly Jam
I Am the King
The King's Dance*
Under the Tree


Genre Progressive Metal
Ty Tabor
Vocals
Tracks 10
Ty Tabor
Guitar
Runningtime 45 Min.
-
Guitar
Label InsideOut Music/SPV
John Myung
Bass
Release -- Mar. 2002
Rod Morgenstein
Drums
Country USA
-
Keyboards
Similar artists Platypus, Dream Theater

A new act has emerged out of the ashes of Platypus in the form of The Jelly Jam.
The Jelly Jam features Platypus alumni, Ty Tabor (King's X) on guitar and vocals, John Myung (Dream Theater) on bassguitar and Rod Morgenstein (The Dixie Dregs) on drums.

Fans of the now slumbering band Platypus will be jumping for joy to hear that after the departure of keyboardist Deek Sherinian, the groups three remaining members have now formed a new constellation called The Jelly Jam.

But musically it differs quite a bit from Platypus. Wheras Platypus contained quite a bit of jazzy elements here and there, we get nothing of that kind on this album - this moves in the gray zone between grunge and softer progressive rock. It is very laid back still somewhat straight ahead on many parts. In guitarist/singer Ty Tabor's own words: "With us, we can't play much of anything simple! We just like to keep it interesting, but I think some of this is pretty immediate. Losing the keyboard and focusing more on the little heavier guitarbased riffs makes this sound more rock'n'roll-ish than Platypus ever did.

The progessive elements are quite significant, with the mandatory long midsections of guitarsolos with that "jamfeeling" in the middle of songs, and for the ones that are into that I am sure this will be appealing.

This album keeps pretty much the same pace throughout the songs, which is basically a slower kind of laid back style with not many uptempo sections. Apperantly this seems to be more than a band on a projectstage already, cause basic tracks for a second album with The Jelly Jam has already been written, and they hope to go on tour with this in a near future.

These are guys that can play their instruments for sure, and they are all great artists with great reputation in the business, but I have a hard time seing the excellence in this.
It feels somehow too common for me, and it all melts down to anonymousness for me, but for the diehard fan of progressive metal from the US, I am sure this could be an interesting experiance.

Production
Vocals
Compositions

8

8

6

 
Summary



6 chalices of 10 - Tommy

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