All Or Nothin’
All or Nothin’
Label: AON Entertainment
Release Date: November 25, 2014
Review Date: November 23, 2014

First off, in the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I am a first cousin of All Or Nothin’s lead singer, Travis King. But, please, don’t assume that he is a talentless schmuck like I am. In fact, please don’t think that for any of the band because, wow! Do these guys ever stomp and rock.
But I’m getting ahead of myself just a bit.

The new East Tennessee based hard rock/metal band, All Or Nothin’, has their self-titled debut five song CD/MP3 and I can honestly say that this is some great, pedal to the metal, grab you by the hair rock.

In addition to Travis, All Or Nothin’ is manned at the battle stations by Dean Havlik on guitar and vocals; Keith Young on guitar/vocals; Joe Cavaliere on bass/vocals; and Eric Waldrup on drums.

I’ve yet to see the band perform live, yet, but I can tell you that, judging by this CD, I can’t wait to see how they work a crowd. The album is strong in its sound and production quality. Four of the five songs are originals and are brilliantly crafted, forcefully performed and scorches its sound into the soundtrack of your mind. As for the fifth song – the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” – it is an amazing, rocking treatment of this rock classic. I think Sting would be proud.

The band grabs the listener by the throat with the opening cut, “Livin’ The Hard Way.” Intricate, hard yet elegant, intertwined melodies makes this song a fun trip and worthy of infinite slaps of the repeat button.

Following is “Modern Day Fairytale.” When this tune lights up, Alice In Chains’ “Rooster” came to mind. It quickly cuts its own sonic path into the listener’s cranium. The guitar solos are quite trippy with their Indian flare. Again, very well written, performed and produced, I suspect this song is a crowd pleaser when performed live.

“For Nothin’” is what I imagine Jim Morrison and The Doors would write and produce if they were starting out to day. Think “L.A. Woman” on steroids. Lots of ‘em. Hard hitting and, again, intricate in an elegant, metal sort of way. Very, very cool.

The fourth cut, “Beat Me Down,” starts out like an amped up “Foxy Lady” and has a continued hook that claws itself into the listener’s brain. I slapped the repeat button on my player a whole bunch of times on this one, it’s that good.

The tour de grace of this album, though, is the band’s brilliant cover of the aforementioned, “Every Breath.”  I’m beating every bit of money Travis has that this tune is a major crowd pleaser when they perform this in the future. If half the people in the crowds don’t sing along when they crank this one out, then I’m going to give up this rock journalism stuff and start writing obituaries in Sun City.

You can order or download the CD (it’s only five bucks!) by clicking here to buy directly from the band. I encourage you to do so because, yeah, it’s that good. While you’re at it, follow them on their site to see where they’ll be performing next and tell them Boomerocity sent you.