Cost: Part of a CD lot I picked up years ago, probably worked out to less than $1
The main problem(s) with this CD are obvious just by reading the liner notes--Menza plays everything on the album except for some guitar solos, and also co-produces and co-mixes. For better (no) or for worse (yes) he's in complete control. But the band he came from weren't exactly great at self-editing and musical governance in their later years, so why would Nick Menza himself be?
It's surprising how amateurish many parts of the disc are, especially the awful vocals--they show little control or sense of melody. There's also a definite lack of songwriting cohesion or focus in general. Some tracks come across as an extremely lo-fi version of the later Megadeth material with Menza, others are more standard rock tracks. And oddly, for a drummer's solo album, the drumming is...well, not very noteworthy. Some have said it sounds like a drum machine (I agree), and the drumming is pretty far forward in the mix, but the playing itself doesn't seem very impressive or inspired.
The only part of the CD I liked was the short Middle Eastern flavored instrumental hidden at the end of the last track (which is incidentally better than most Nile material).
