Blissed - Waking Up the Dead (KRR) 2004
1 "Waking Up the Dead"
(3:16)
2 "Obvious" (3:34)
3 "All I Want" (3:08)
4 "Fire Below" (4:10)
5 "Hold Me" (3:47)
6 "Losing You" (4:08)
7 "Come on In" (3:27)
8 "I Hate You" (4:29)
9 "Under My Skin" (3:09)
10 "I Would Die" (5:29)
11 "Shut Up" (3:21)
12 "Let It Go" (3:35)
It seems to me that outside of Stryper, the individual members of Stryper just don't have the same chemistry as the do when the are together. Sin Dizzy and Robert Sweet's "Love Trash", neither of them quite have the same quality that Stryper has. Blissed is the new project of Stryper drummer Robert Sweet and to be fair his new band isn't even trying to sound like Stryper. The only comparison that can be made is that Robert Sweet is in both bands. Blissed is heavy modern rock, and may even be labeled "nu-metal" (ie. down tuned guitars, lacking in guitar solos, etc.) For some reason, as much as I want to like this CD, I just can't get into it. 99% of the reason is the vocals. At times vocalist David Pearson breaks into this high, clean voice that sounds great, but most of the times he is doing this gritty modern rock style that just doesn't work for me. I even tried playing this CD over and over again over the months that I had it before reviewing it, hoping that it might grow on me a bit. However, it just didn't. A couple of songs caught my attention. "Fire Below" has this slight T.Rex sound that could have been worked into a killer song had it been done in a similar fashion to bands like Beautiful Creatures, Starwood or Brides of Destruction. "Losing You" has a similar quality. Actually there are several songs that have this same potential. Here's hoping in the future they will move a bit more in that direction. As for this CD, perhaps in time I will grow to appreciate it more.
Blissed - Corrosive (KRR) 2006
1. "Superhero"
(4:14)
2. "Monster" (4:07)
3. "Decision" (1:03)
4. "Betrayal" (3:39)
5. "Corrosive" (4:16)
6. "Run" (4:28)
7. "With You" (4:41)
8. "Get Up" (3:59)
9. "Rise" (3:17)
10. "Getting Better" (3:29)
11. "Bittersweet" (5:05)
12. "Reprise" (2:01)
"Corrosive" is a bit of an improvement over the debut, especially the vocals. For some reason I just couldn't get into David Pearson's vocals on that album. I much prefer the clean singing style he uses here to the gritty, forced sound on the debut.. As well, the songs seem to have better hooks this time around. The overall album has a similar vibe to Stryper's "Reborn", which is sort of ironic considering that Robert Sweet is no longer part of the band. Like "Reborn" Blissed have managed to write some memorable hooks. However, the riffs are the typical stop/start, downtuned, modern rock affair and the songs themselves are mostly midpaced, save for the lengthy ballad "Bittersweet." Unfortunately there is not much in the way of guitar solos or fills either. The albums best tracks seem to be leadoff tracks "Superhero" and "Monster", both of which are a tell tale story of what is to come. On first listen, the remaining tracks seemed to have a sameness about them. I would have liked to have heard a few heavier, or faster paced songs. However, with repeated listens the nuances of the songs begin to reveal themselves and the album began to grown on me.