Music Review : Rex Carroll That Was Then This Is Now :: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock

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Rex Carroll That Was Then This Is Now new music review

Rex Carroll Band, The: That Was Then ...

Blues/Hard Rock

4.5/5.0

Retroactive Records
www.myspace.com/rexcarroll
www.retroactiverecords.net
Review: Craig Hartranft, 08.23.2010

Here's another great homegrown American guitarist: Rex Carroll. You may recall his work primarily from the Christian hard rock outfit Whitecross from the late 80's to early 90's. If you're memory's even better you will remember a small band called Fierce Heart or a later outing called King James. That Was Then, This Is Now comes under the moniker of The Rex Carroll Band, and finds Carroll visiting some different roots than those that formed earlier works. Carroll was raised on and influenced 70's rock from likes of Scorpions, Van Halen, and Deep Purple.

However, this work explores another side that influenced him: blues and southern rock. Carroll is a longtime fan of the greats such as ZZ Top and the Allman Brothers, and you can hear it on That Was Then, This Is Now. The first evidence is in Carroll's gritty, yet soulful, vocals which imagine Greg Allman merging with Bill Gibbons. Next comes Rex's cutting edge southern-fried and bluesy fret work, with a dash of the hard rock and metal vibe that made him famous back in the day.

That Was Then, This Is Now is rip-roaring stuff, heavy on the blues and infinitely charming. Listen to My Train for a seminal blues type; Witch Dr. Bones and the massive Throw Them Bonz for a torrent of fret-blistering heavy blues rock; and, the amazing and best cut on the album Working Man's Blues for an authentic dose of hard-driving honest gut-level blues rock. Fine stuff!

For pure blues hard rock, Rex Carroll's That Was Then, This Is Now is the real deal. Strongly recommended!

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