| · Great record – shame about the genre.
Like many hard rock acts who found success in the late-’80s, Sacramento’s Tesla released a couple of weak albums in the following decade and then called it quits. They’ve come together again to try to prove hard rock isn’t completely dead, it just needed a long vacation after years of bloated excess (thanks for ruining it for the rest of us, Guns N’ Roses).
For the most part, Tesla succeeds in resurrecting their gritty and pretty brand of rock and roll and the strongest tracks from Into the Now easily match the quality of songs from their first two classic albums, The Great Radio Controversy and Mechanical Resonance. Jeff Keith’s vocals are still raspy and emotionally resonant and the guitar work is innovative without turning into a wankfest. Crunchy on some tracks, like slow motion machine-gun fire on others, it’s sparse and beautiful on "Only You," – the album’s final track and the first hard rock ballad to make me cry in 15 years.
It’s not a perfect album (skip the middle tracks), but one that should please former Tesla fans or anyone who misses the days when a new Aerosmith record was something to get excited about.
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