THE SERVANTS
MOSTLY MONSTERS

FUGITIVE

LINKS:

servantsrock.com

I always like to keep up on what old friends are doing, and here is one of those examples. My former roomie, Chris Kontos, original skin-basher for the Bay Area faves Machine Head, as well as Testament, Attitude Adjustment, et al, has a new group called The Servants.

But, if you’re looking for it to be the aggressive stuff of his past, then you’ll be sadly disappointed. Kontos has changed genres on us. The Servants are a blues-based straight-on rock band—think early Black Crowes, Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, Allman Brothers, and Lynyrd Skynyrd and you’ll be on the right track.

Kontos is joined by vocalist, Tony Malson; lead/slide guitarist, Dave Rude; rhythm guitarist, Morgan Alm; and bassist Marco Guzman. The quintet puts out product that is at times truly inspired and at other times merely mediocre, which is disappointing since they try so hard and have such potential. The energy of tracks such as “Mostly Monsters”, “Favorite Song”, and “Too Fast” are bogged down by the heartfelt clunkers called “Waiting” and “Until That Day”, which need to be trimmed down to their bones to be more effective. They do a fun cover of Skynyrd’s “Saturday Night Special” here as well. Technically proficient players, they sound great with Kontos’ production, but just need a bit of tweaking with the arrangements to make them into something truly classic like the legends they so obviously emulate.


----Christine Natanael