The original Spaceman lead guitarist of the legendary Kiss lineup serves up a platter of 12 new tracks on his first solo effort since 1989’s Trouble Walkin’. On Anomaly, Ace Frehley refreshingly sticks to his classic 70’s roots keeping all of the fundamentals of hard rock prominent. Frehley’s guitars come out in a chugging blaze from the very beginning of “Foxy and Free” continuing into “Outer Space,” while the drums of Anton Fig (David Letterman) and Scott Coogan (Brides of Destruction) bring the thunder. Almost all of the material on this album is hard rock in its most natural state with traces of melodic moments spread throughout (“Pain in the Neck”). Frehley pays tribute to 70’s British rock band Sweet with a rendition of “Fox on the Run” that stays very true to the original performance. “A Little Below the Angels” is an honest acoustic ballad from a recovering alcoholic’s perspective. “Genghis Khan” is mainly an instrumental stomp rock tune with the random lyric “so long Genghis Khan, now your gone, so long” thrown in here and there, unlike “Space Bear” and “Fractured Quantum,” which are completely instrumental. All in all, Anomaly does not piss me off one bit and it should not piss anyone off. The riffs are hard, heavy, in some cases epic (“Space Bear”), and better than anything that Kiss has released in the last 20 years. –Meds
Ace Frehley is Ace Frehley (Vocals/Guitars), Derrek Hawkins (Rhythm Guitar), Anthony Esposito (Bass), Marti Frederiksen (Keyboards/Bass/Rhythm Guitar), Anton Fig (Drums), & Steve Coogan (Drums).
Track Listing:
- “Foxy and Free”
- “Outer Space”
- “Pain in the Neck”
- “Fox on the Run”
- “Genghis Khan”
- “Too Many Faces”
- “Change the World”
- “Space Bear”
- “A Little Below the Angels”
- “Sister”
- “It’s a Great Life”
- “Fractured Quantum”