You have to congratulate sometime Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz and Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine for teaming up, recruiting backing musicians such as NIN’s Chris Vrenna and making an album to raise funds for autism awareness (www.autismspeaks.org).
Writing a negative review of such a worthwhile project isn’t pleasant, but we have to be honest here, and, unfortunately, the music doesn’t bear too much scrutiny. The best that can be said about songs such as One Shell (In The Chamber), Standby Passenger and Runaway Train is that they are moderately entertaining toe-tappers like the tracks you might find nestled in between the standout songs of any given Megadeth or Disturbed album.
Heaviness and dynamic thrills are too thin on the ground to encourage even the most rabid Spitz/Mustaine fan to give Red Lamb many spins, sadly, and the plodding mid-tempo pace of almost all the tunes becomes tiresome far too soon for comfort. There is the occasional moment of interest (see Mustaine’s growled invectives in Don’t Threaten To Love Me, for example), but that aside, a donation to the relevant charity would be a more satisfying experience than actually listening to this CD.
