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Murder Falcon s/c

Murder Falcon s/c back

Daniel Warren Johnson & Daniel Warren Johnson, Mike Spicer

Price: 
£17.98

Page 45 Review by Jonathan

"You... you're recruiting me to this craziness? To defeat monsters with... MUSIC???
"Me, helping to save the world? No. No. I couldn't even keep my own band together... after I lost everything!
"I pushed everyone out to protect myself! How can I go back to playing now? For stakes this high?
"I'm worthless to you."
"Jake... where I come from... there are many like me. Linked to instruments like the one you hold in your hands.
"My coming here was not by accident.
"I chose you, Jake
"You are talented, kind, resilient. There is a spark inside you, even though you try and hide it. And it is that spark, through that guitar, that helps me to..."
"Fight evil?"
"And save the world."
"This is insane. And what kind of name is Murder Falcon anyways? It's kind of... intense."
"Don't worry, Jake... I only murder monsters."

Channelling, indeed revelling, in the sheer epic nonsensicalness of the likes of Bill And Ted, the Comic Strip's ridiculous Bad News spoof plus pretty much everything Tenacious D have ever written, comes a epic story of one very unlikely heavy metal musician stuck in the wrong sort of funk. He's going to have to fight off an invasion of monsters that even Godzilla in his pomp would have had problems dealing with. Fortunately, he's not going to have to do it alone...

Just occasionally, something is so wrong it is right. If you throw shredding guitar into the ear-rending mix I'm talking DETROIT METAL CITY levels of lunacy here. There is just such a gloriously insane sense of fun at work right from the opening notes that suspension of disbelief gets thrown clean out of the window like a smashed TV out of a deranged rocker's hotel window.

The fight scenes have a touch of the kinetically chaotic precision of Geof Darrow's SHAOLIN COWBOY though in truth Daniel Warren Johnson's art style minded me of a slightly more jagged James ALIENS: DEAD ORBIT Stokoe.

But this is no all-out action comedy fest! No, what carries this behemoth careening along in ever more gargantuan fashion like an exploding fireball from the depths of hell gathering everything up before it in a crap music video style is its drum-thumping heart. For Jake is a man badly in need of redemption and rediscovering his musical mojo. What better than the threat of total global annihilation at the hands, well, claws of Magnum Khaos, who is intent on enslaving humanity, to force Jake to pick up his err... pick and start plucking!

Every time you think Johnson can't up the proverbial decibel level ante he manages it! I did seriously wonder if he was going to be able to pull off the ending, but he manages something appropriately spectacular to bring matters to a pounding conclusion. Then there is the matter of the power ballad encore epilogue... I don't want to spoil the set list, but suffice to say, the final number brings the house down and draws matters to a very moving conclusion indeed.

There's no comeback tours planned as far as I am aware. This is a one hit wonder for Jake, Murder Falcon and the rest of the band. But sometimes that's the way it should be!


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