The CAUZE: "Demo"
Indie 2006
Review by Kimmo Toivonen,
16 July 2006
The Cauze are a Californian hard rock band lead by
Jeff Ellis. Mr. Ellis actually wrote, performed and
produced all the material on this demo CD, but these
days The Cauze is a real band featuring guitarist Joel
Ellis, bass player Kevin Crider and drummer Scott
Misner alongside Jeff Ellis on vocals and guitar.
I usually get a bit suspicious when I get a demo that's
been completely put together by just one individual.
Not everyone has the kind of arsenal of talent that
they can play all the instruments and sing too, not to
mention that they should also act as the producer
and the engineer! Therefore, I'm happy to say that
Jeff Ellis does have "the arsenal". In fact, I listened
to the CD for a few times before reading the bio, and
not once did I think that it wasn't a real band playing...
The songs of The Cauze are mostly in the melodic
hard rock style, sometimes bordering on AOR.
There's even one full-on metal song here, "Last Call
Woman", which reminds me of Lizzy Borden and Iron
Maiden. Jeff hits some seriously high notes on it! The
other songs are more to my liking though, taking
their cues from classic 80'ies hard rock bands like
Dokken, Ratt, Y&T and White Lion, to name a few.
Jeff's songs seem to rely on guitar riffs just as much
as on melodies, sometimes even more. Almost every
song has a catchy riff or two. Some of them may
sound a bit familiar, but let's not start nitpicking!
Anyway, the strong riffs are a bit of problem too -
they'll raise your expectations about the rest of the
song, and sometimes the rest can not live up to the
expectations. Don't get me wrong, there are some
perfectly good choruses here, like "Something
Showing" or "The Chase", but some of the other
tracks are missing that final touch.
Considering that this is the band's first effort (well,
Jeff's first effort anyway), it's quite promising. Jeff
himself is a very good vocalist with a voice that
reminds me a bit of Doug Howard of Stun Leer and
british AOR singer Steve Newman. He is a really
talented guitarist as well. What The Cauze needs now
is a bunch of real killer songs with both cool riffs AND
super hooklines. I'm pretty sure that they can deliver
those.
www.thecauzeband.com
The Cauze at Myspace.Com
Indie 2006
Review by Kimmo Toivonen,
16 July 2006
The Cauze are a Californian hard rock band lead by
Jeff Ellis. Mr. Ellis actually wrote, performed and
produced all the material on this demo CD, but these
days The Cauze is a real band featuring guitarist Joel
Ellis, bass player Kevin Crider and drummer Scott
Misner alongside Jeff Ellis on vocals and guitar.
I usually get a bit suspicious when I get a demo that's
been completely put together by just one individual.
Not everyone has the kind of arsenal of talent that
they can play all the instruments and sing too, not to
mention that they should also act as the producer
and the engineer! Therefore, I'm happy to say that
Jeff Ellis does have "the arsenal". In fact, I listened
to the CD for a few times before reading the bio, and
not once did I think that it wasn't a real band playing...
The songs of The Cauze are mostly in the melodic
hard rock style, sometimes bordering on AOR.
There's even one full-on metal song here, "Last Call
Woman", which reminds me of Lizzy Borden and Iron
Maiden. Jeff hits some seriously high notes on it! The
other songs are more to my liking though, taking
their cues from classic 80'ies hard rock bands like
Dokken, Ratt, Y&T and White Lion, to name a few.
Jeff's songs seem to rely on guitar riffs just as much
as on melodies, sometimes even more. Almost every
song has a catchy riff or two. Some of them may
sound a bit familiar, but let's not start nitpicking!
Anyway, the strong riffs are a bit of problem too -
they'll raise your expectations about the rest of the
song, and sometimes the rest can not live up to the
expectations. Don't get me wrong, there are some
perfectly good choruses here, like "Something
Showing" or "The Chase", but some of the other
tracks are missing that final touch.
Considering that this is the band's first effort (well,
Jeff's first effort anyway), it's quite promising. Jeff
himself is a very good vocalist with a voice that
reminds me a bit of Doug Howard of Stun Leer and
british AOR singer Steve Newman. He is a really
talented guitarist as well. What The Cauze needs now
is a bunch of real killer songs with both cool riffs AND
super hooklines. I'm pretty sure that they can deliver
those.
www.thecauzeband.com
The Cauze at Myspace.Com
THE GUITAR GODS REVIEW