New Clue - Blast From the Past

New Clue

Blast From the Past

by Kevin Lewis at 21 July 2020, 7:18 AM

NEW CLUE is an American Metal band that has a long and storied history. Formed in the 1990’s in Connecticut as NO CLUE, they have seen a large turnover in their 20+ years. Transitioning from covers to original music and taking breaks due to personal issues, this band has persevered through events that crushed most bands collective spirit. Overcoming all this adversity, they released “Blast From The Past” via Unable Records, on May 5, 2020.

Starting this record off is “Rippoff”. With a catchy groove and some interesting guitar work, you can tell their talent in this band. The unfortunate part is the sound is not as crisp and clear as I would like. It sounds to me like some of the old demo recordings you used to get on bootleg albums from the 80’s. “Vampire Blood” is a shock rock type song, weird ambience and tonality, but a good listen. I like the background synth making it feel like it could be in a horror film. Similarly, “Mercy Falls” has that ambient type feeling.

There are three songs recorded live on this record and they sound like they were played in a warehouse with no acoustic thought to them. The snare sounds like it was recorded in the same place Lars Ulrich recorded “St. Anger”. The songs are catchy, just sound really rough. The “Mystic Winds” bonus CD is good. “Illustrious Youth” is a good song that deserves to be produced correctly. Somehow, the guitars on “Shark Infested  Waters” seems to sound like it is in the background, not mixed into the overall song.

NEW CLUE is a fairly good band. They have talent and are good musicians. I know it sounds like I really don’t like this disc, but I just have a hard time with the production and overall sound of the record. Neil Whittington reminds me a lot of Henrik Ostergaard (R.I.P.) from DIRTY LOOKS and the band has a definite sound like that era of music from the late 80’s/early 90’s. I would really like to hear this album re-made with a different production crew. This could be a good record with the right treatment.

Songwriting:  7
Musicianship:  7
Memorability:  5
Production:  5