Rendall Wagner – Aum

Wagner – Aum by Peter Harrison
This is essentially a rock and roll record, with lots of heavy guitars and big harmonies and rhythms.
It is also ten years old, first being released in 1996, and has some elements to it that sound very dated now. There are some Guns ‘n’ Roses style guitar solos disguised as ballad songs, there are some heavy rockers that could almost be passed off as Metallica if some of the lyrics were a little darker and the vocal delivery lends a hyperbolic drama to each of the tracks.

Track four reveals a slightly different tack, being predominantly acoustic, and it holds more to The Cruel Sea than heavy 80s stadium rock groups, but I would still call it a rock track, just with a slightly bluesy flavour.

Track 7 has a didgeridoo, but it really appears to be little more than a novelty as it fades out about ten seconds into the song and then appears again at the end. Track 7, “Heart and Soul”, is Wagner wearing his religious beliefs on his sleeve and in a strange way, reminds me of “London Girl” by the Pogues, but only in the way that it is produced and the semi-pop song style that it inhabits.

Wagner goes all out on the heavy rock in “Survivor”, with heavy riffing and dive bombing guitars, and a pretty standard all or nothing, it’s us against the world sort of sentiment.