Helios Creed : Busting Through The Van Allan Belt

ARTIST:     Helios Creed
TITLE:      Busting Through The Van Allan Belt
LABEL:      Cleopatra (CLEO94652)
TRACK TIME: 41:13

This disc is anything but noisome. Noisy, yes, but not noisome. I can say this because I know the difference between the two words. A simple comment kept me from checking out Helios Creed much earlier. I was told that I would like him because he was noisome (If you're lost get out a dictionary and look up the word noisome).

I have only limited experience with Helios Creed (I own two Chrome reissues), but hopefully this will be helpful, rather than a hindrance. Straight up, Busting Through The Van Allan Belt is great. This discs starts off cool and stays cool. I've always been a sucker for the "scary evil whisper," so "Alien Lady" gets my vote for one of the best songs on this release. There are two sets of vocals on this track, the first sounds like a devil tempting you to sell you soul, the other...well, a cross between a muppet and the singer from The Fall come to mind. I love this song, but wonder how seriously I am supposed to take it. The next song to really grab my attention is track 6, "Late Bloomer," which sounds like it has Jabba the Hut singing.

"Drowning Sin" is too long for my taste, I was ready for this to get over at about 6 minutes, but I had to wait twice that long. Only so much instrumental montage can be taken at once. My biggest complaint is that the next song isn't much different. "Bubble Butt" would not have been my pick to end this disc with. Oh well, I'll still be picking up some of Helios Creed's earlier discs.

Most of the songs on Busting Through The Van Allan Belt are guitar driven and are quite fast, but there are exceptions to both. A mixture of drum machines, vocals, samples, synthesizer, and real percussions move this disc along, until it ends sooner than expected.

argent@iastate.edu