F5
A Drug for All Seasons

For the series: mafavvanculo!

It was about time that the good Dave (no longer Jr.) Ellefson decided to kick the despotic Dave of Megadeth, now Medadeth, in the ass. Despotic, irreverent, irritating... Oh well, just send him to hell and focus on your own project. Leave him the scraps of works like "United Abomination" or the more "abominable" "The System has failed." Albums with no head, no tail, and above all, no soul.

The good Dave "bassist" Ellefson thus decides to recruit his own lineup and enlists personalities such as former Sick Speed singer Dale Steele, the competent guitars of John Davis and Steve Conley, and the impetuous percussion of Dave Small. All to give life to a new project which, mind you, doesn't aim to be a sort of alter ego of Megadeth but rather, a personal outlet for our good bassist who, having felt suppressed and subdued for over 20 years, evidently had enough of it. The result is F5, a band that doesn’t hit the mark with thrash (I even put it in Gravinese for you, muauhauhauhauhaua!!! Accocchia: vulgaris = accocchiare, voice of the verb to enter, so, "doesn't hit a thing"), while it has various musical attitudes with a certain modern heavy metal and several post-grunge moments (!). The result is enjoyable, if only it weren't for, along the path of the 12 tracks that make up the album, unfortunately, what cannot be avoided is boredom.

Let's be clear: the album itself is not bad at all and the musicians' skill is untouchable. The opener "Faded" is an excellent business card, which illustrates all the cards in play by the band. Melody, technique, and a massive dose of ferocity offered by the axemen and the vocalist who is perpetually angry with the world. Hard, granite, very heavy voice but, at the same time, melodic that doesn't make me miss Mustaine's half-assed voice at all.

Returning to the tracks, there's fun to be had. Besides the aforementioned opener, I could highlight, for the easy melodies, "Hold Me Down," really catchy, while for the games that good Dave manages to play with his bass... Well, practically all of them! He is the mastermind of the formation, so each song corresponds to his stratospheric outstanding performance.

For what concerns the other songs... well, I must say and admit, with a heavy heart, that they do not differ much, stylistically speaking, from one another. Betting everything, indeed, on technical dynamism, heaviness, and melodies. Empty and uninspired, in my opinion, were "Dying on the vine" and "X'd out", nothing at all.

In conclusion, the album isn't bad but it tires out. It tires out in its repetitiveness, in its obsessive desire to hit the listener hard, but it manages to redeem itself thanks to the easy melodies and the skill of all the musicians, their technical instrumental and vocal prowess, with a Dave never so inspired.

Good album but not as excellent as the critics said at its debut on the market.