After a messy split with longtime musical partner
Dave Mustaine
in
Megadeth
, bassist
Dave Ellefson
wasted little time getting his next project a float:
F5
. In this day and age, most
heavy metal
bands would like you to believe that they are happy to simply bash away at their instruments 24/7, with their Marshalls cranked up to 11. So it's a bit refreshing to read
's press release, in which the quintet is honest about its game plan from here on out: "To be heavy, but always melodic." And that's a very fitting description of
's full-length debut,
A Drug for All Seasons
. Singer
Dale Steele
(the most fitting name for a
metal
singer ever?) has no problem handling the musical curveballs that
Ellefson
and the other instrumentalists throw his way. But an oddly chosen cover -- the hippie anthem
"What I Am"
by
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians
-- will undoubtedly confuse the metalhead following
inherited from
's
days. But the original material works much better, as evidenced by such standouts as the title track (which sounds quite a bit like
John Bush
-era
Anthrax
) and
"Dying on the Vine."
Certainly not Peace Sells...but Who's Buying, Pt. 2, but that's precisely what
did not want to do with his new band. ~ Greg Prato