Big Mouth – Hands Of Time

Overall what do we get with Big Mouth? Sweeping melodic rock which brings to mind the best moments of the genre during g an era that was bereft of highlights.

Written by: gdmonline

ARTIST: Big Mouth
ALBUM: Hands Of Time
LABEL: Zoo Money (Sweden)
SERIAL: ZM2 44850
YEAR: 1997
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

LINEUP: Larry Leon – vocals * Basil Fung – guitars * Phil Cristian – keyboards, vocals * Mike Norton – bass * Dan Voss – drums

TRACK LISTING: 01 Where Were You * 02 Show Me The Way * 03 Valerie * 04 Borderline * 05 Without Love * 06 Hands Of Time * 07 All The Way * 08 Save Me * 09 Million Miles Away * 10 Shout It

Background

This album’s a real surprise. There’s not too much to suggest that this is a melodic rock gem. You look at it – the moniker Big Mouth, a photo of all the guys in the band and you’d think we were heading down Pantera Avenue. How wrong we are. If we dig a bit deeper we see there’s some genuine class. Vocalist Larry Leon was with shortlived but nonetheless legendary Xeron, who released that one-off classic ‘Does Anybody Hear’ from 1985.

Keyboardist is the seasoned Phil Cristian who also released an acclaimed solo album ‘No Prisoner’. Guitarist Basil Fung has played with the likes of Fake I.D while drummer Dan Voss is the mainstay behind Voss Records, specialising in instrumental guitar albums similar to Mike Varney’s Shrapnel Records.

The Songs

Overall what do we get with Big Mouth? Sweeping melodic rock which brings to mind the best moments of the melodic rock genre. This is so obvious when you listen to the opening pair of tracks; ‘Where Were You’, and ‘Show Me The Way’ where the choruses are just so memorable.

The band crank it up on ‘Valerie’ which is uptempo melodic rock as is ‘Borderline’. ‘Without Love’ has a youth gone wrong storyline and wanders close to Tesla territory through the verses. The title track ‘Hands Of Time’ has a big acoustic intro and again has a rich chorus to draw upon. ‘All The Way’ sounds like it could easily appear on a Mark Spiro album.

There is a strong percussion and keyboard theme throughout and Cristian’s influences are clear for all to hear. Perhaps he and Mark have been collaborating? ‘Save Me’ is one of the heavier tracks but still very very melodic. Like Artica or some of the American MTM bands a la Tower City.

The last two tracks perhaps let the side down slightly. The token ballad is ‘Million Miles Away’ which doesn’t seem to flow with the rest of the album while the album closer ‘Shout It’ is heavy and grunts away in 1980’s style riffarama heavy metal fashion.

In Summary

All in all, a solid melodic rock effort from Big Mouth in what appears to be a one-off band project. Hopefully they will get together and release something again in future.

Big Mouth on Video

Where Were You