Shop our Big Takeover store for back issues, t-shirts & CDs
Follow The Big Takeover
Apparently, this debut by The Chemical Distance began as solo album by one Otto Kinzel, a New Englander who’s been circling the metal/industrial scenes of the Northeastern US for over a decade. At some point, Kinzel decided he had a certain chemistry with some session musicians and transformed his solo project into a full band.
Unfortunately, the project probably would have been much more successful as the originally envisioned solo effort. Michael Hauptly-Pierce‘s vocals are quite simply horrible and ruin the songs on which he appears. He sounds like a cross between Anthony Kiedis, Consolidated‘s Adam Sherburne and Fred Durst, a combination that is just unbearably annoying. Two songs, “Life’s Blood” and “Eternal Buzz,” have vocals performed by a certain Griznoodle, who is slightly better, though not much. It’s really the instrumental tracks and the Ministry-like “No ‘Real’ Friend,” on which Kinzel himself provides the vocals, that stand out here. These songs display what Kinzel is truly capable of without the obstacle of bad singing to get in the way.
Hopefully, Otto Kinzel will continue on his own, as he’s much better that way.
