Before joining the ranks of such high profile bands like Sixx: AM and Guns N' Roses guitarist DJ Ashba was building up his resume as a guitarist. One such band that helped him get noticed by the big boys was a band called Beautiful Creatures. They were a band made up of people from around the Sunset Strip in Hollywood in the early 2000's. In 2001 the band put out its debut album which was titled Beautiful Creatures.
Beautiful Creatures features a heavy blues rock sound in a similar vein to Guns N' Roses. You can kind of tell in some of the chord progressions, solos, and vocal melodies that they were the direct inspiration for Beautiful Creatures' music. Be that as it may, there are some legitimately good straight up rock tracks on it that do showcase Ashba playing stuff directly from his 80's based blues rock roots.
Wasted was one of the main single of the album. You can kind of tell they were trying to grab a more commercial and mainstream market for the time because a lot of the nuances have a more early 2000's vibe to them than the 80's hard rock vibe that is featured in the rest of the songs. Be that as it may, the vocal hook in the chorus is pretty memorable. The solo is melodic and still has that Slash kind of vibe that Ashba was going for at the time.
New Orleans is probably the crown jewel of the album. You hear GN'R all over the place in it, but I think that is what makes it so good. In a way it's like a love letter to a band that made such a huge impact on everyone in the group. It is a four chord song that blends acoustic and electric guitars quite nicely while featuring a guitar melody that in my opinion acts as the whole reason to buy the album in the first place. It is so damn catchy. I can't tell you how many times I had the song on repeat just for that.
In a way Beautiful Creatures was a ripoff of Guns N' Roses to some extent, which is probably why they failed commercially. However, that is not to say that they didn't make some good songs that are still good in their own right. The members have all gone on to do bigger and better things since then, but it is always nice to go back and see where they got their start. It's a shame though that Ashba is no longer in GN'R because he could have brought some of the classic sound back into the new music that will eventually come out maybe.
Beautiful Creatures, by Beautiful Creatures receives 3 out of 5 stars.
Track List:
1. 1 AM
2. Wasted
3. Step Back
4. Ride
5. Wish
6. Kick Out
7. Blacklist
8. Kickin' For Days
9. Time and Time Again
10. Goin' Off
11. New Orleans
12. I Got It All
Buy the album on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Creatures/dp/B00005N82Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1438291072&sr=1-1&keywords=Beautiful+Creatures+Beautiful+Creatures
No comments:
Post a Comment