The tempo then shifts on a dime back to the original groove and Dwyer’s solo continues. After a couple of verses, the volume drops and a soft solo guitar figure leads to a speedy instrumental section in which each musician plays an essential part. The album opens convincingly, with a churning guitar riff soon supported by the machine-like rhythm section and Dwyer’s muscular vocals. You’re banging your head one minute and made to think the next. Each track is a specific example of those types of scenarios, but the album overall does have a chronology to it, so it is in essence like a linear story.Ĭlocking in at just over an hour, the 14-song release is a captivating blend of tempos and dynamics that shift not only song by song, but within each tune as well. But all of that is just a metaphor for something much more general (and, hopefully, relatable), which is how people act like they have your best interest at heart when nothing could be further from the truth, and how you have to navigate your way past their coercion and bad advice to hopefully come out the other side. This was inspired by video games, comic books, historical fiction, and some nonfiction books as well. The rock opera concept ostensibly is a story of a secret society that manipulates the goings on around them. The Cloistered Order is in fact is a rock-opera-style concept album the songs-all composed by Dwyer, except one co-written with Tony Savarino, another talented guitarist on the local scene-tell a story colored by inventive arrangements and the band’s versatile musicianship. Like Thin Lizzy, they marry metallic thunder with melodic structures and lyrics worth listening to. Behind the menacing cover art and stage makeup, these guys have technique and taste to spare. They make a big sound for a trio, yet what stands out isn’t the volume or the pyrotechnics, it’s the multitude of textures and tempos. (In fact, Dwyer hosts a weekly blues jam, Sundays from 1-4 p.m., at The Porch, where he churns out potent blues licks that remind one that all the early hard rockers were blues aficionados.)ĭwyer’s comrades in arms are Thomas Lada (bass, piano, organ, background vocals), and Stephen Hart (drums, percussion, background vocals). The band’s influences, according to guitarist/vocalist Colin Dwyer, cover a fairly broad terrain: Judas Priest, Meat Loaf, Motorhead, Thin Lizzy, Rainbow, Aerosmith, blues, and glam rock. Formed six years ago, Minx indeed rocks with power, but anyone assuming their music is just a fast, hard sonic slugfest will be happy to be proven wrong. Minx is a hard rock power trio that recently dropped its second CD, The Cloistered Order, which it will be featuring at a record release party at The Porch restaurant in Medford on Saturday, June 10 at 9 p.m. That’s why I like to occasionally review indie recordings from local bands that you might not otherwise learn about or hear. But at the same time, and especially in metro Boston and all of Massachusetts, where musicians are everywhere and they’re all trying to make their art-and a buck-artists face an uphill struggle to garner attention. Good press builds awareness, which can lead to sales. That’s fine that’s the way an entertainment industry operates. Like Thin Lizzy, Minx marries metallic thunder with melodic structures and lyrics worth listening to.ĬDs are sent to me to review all the time.
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