Rising from the ashes of
Hades
and Texan stalwarts
Watchtower
, New Jersey's own
Non-Fiction
released its promising 1991 debut
Preface
to much fanfare in the New York/Long Island/New Jersey area. Unfortunately, this enthusiasm failed to manifest itself in the rest of the United States. Deeply ensconced in the slow doom and gloom of early
Black Sabbath
-meets-
Soudgarden
(circa their
SST
/
Louder Than Love
days),
's refreshingly depressing direction was a far cry from singer
Alan Tecchio
and guitarist
Dan Lorenzo
's previous outfits.
kicks into funeral procession mode with the
"Into the Void"
-inspired
"The My Way."
And unlike the prog-lite tendencies of his previous bands which celebrated the let's-try-to-jam-as-many-words-into-a-verse-as-possible dictum, when given the necessary breathing room, singer
's voice sounds splendid (in a very
Chris Cornell
kind of way).
Lorenzo
's tuned-down
Les Paul
gives way to the album's second track, the even better, dirgy
"Listen."
Apart from the weak
"Aged,"
the rest of
is like one big time warp. Think of it this way: If
Trouble
had met
Toni Iommi
around the time of
Sabotage
and had had a spawn, there's a good chance that its kids would have been
fans. ~ John Franck