John 5 - Vertio
Following in the footsteps of guitar revolutionists, starting with Hendrix and most recently Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, John 5 is here to bring something new to the ‘axe.’ Unlike Hendrix’s and Rodriguez-Lopez’s more loose and inventive styles, 5 plays it like Tom Morello, breaking all the rules and all the standards.
It’s a rare thing, but Johnny Greenwoods and Matt Bellamys do turn up now and then and Marilyn Manson’s former guitarist has just released his solo project ‘Vertigo’ to demonstrate exactly what he can do and exactly what he couldn’t during his time in the Manson band.
This album is heavily inspired by bluegrass music, molding it with his patented crunchy, powerful, low and palm-muted chords. There are lots of fast solos but they sound right, less out of place than say, a Steve Vai attempt or a Van Halen solo on a certain Michael Jackson track. There are lots of hooks too.
But solos certainly aren’t all that’s on offer, meaning the album isn’t ruined by pretentious nonsense. John Lowery, as is his real name, is a man completely in tune with his instrument. It’s the tool he uses to release the insanity from his brain and into noise; it’s his form of a lobotomy machine.
Needless to say ‘Needless CA’ begins the mostly instrumental album, it’s full of craziness and sounds that no one’s ever made before on the guitar, such as the exact replica of a police siren. Then there’s ‘Feisty Cadavers’ which is mind-boggling. It goes from a manic distorted rampage to a nice soft acoustic part in no time at all, everything at once and best of all, it doesn’t sound one bit fake, it sounds like he’s played it all in one take and probably exhausted himself in the process.
The best bit about this album is the other weird sounds that appear, between tracks, like detuned kids singing and strange slowed down vocal noises here and there. Quirky indeed. ‘Pulling Strings’ is blues-influenced as well as being very funky and it ends in almost exactly the same way as Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Mr. Self-Destruct’ with a repeated noise spinning on and on. The title track ‘Vertigo’ at number eight is definitely the epitome of the bluegrass feel this record has.
And that’s it, basically-s an album full of John 5’s experiments with musical genre and melding this and that, an exorcise in smelting guitar strings to see what kind of a noise is made. This is interesting in itself and therefore, with the songs being pretty good too, compliments the record even more.
You don’t need a brain to listen to this music, just a pair of ears, which I’m sure is lucky for some. There’s no intellectual over or undertones and it won’t stimulate a world conscience, but its aural excitement and that’s fair enough. At least it can’t be blamed by governments for inciting gun violence as Marilyn Manson records have been.