feeding on the carrion of metal

Push Comes To Shove (Geffen)

Jackyl

By Kory Wilcoxson

With Push Comes to Shove, it's necessary to invoke the first law of reviewing heavy metal rock and roll: beware of bands named after misspelled animals (for reference, see Ratt).

Jackyl has always held status as a minor league heavy metal wannabe band, never really possessing enough talent or good songs to break through to the limelight.

Push Comes to Shove certainly is not the ticket. It's not bad for what it is, which is a mediocre album from a minor league heavy metal wannabe band.

Jackyl tries a few tricks to broaden their image, but they are feeble at best. The raunchy side of singer/songwriter Jesse James Dupree (oh, please!) comes out in "I Could Never Touch You Like You Do" and "Chief Rock-A-Ho" (sounds like a Sir Mix-A-Lot rip-off). He gives a nod to his Southern roots (the band hails from Atlanta) on "Dixieland" and antes up a tear-jerkin' drinking song on "Secret of the Bottle."

But it's all the same crap in different colored packages. The songs have the necessary hooks and guitar riffs taken from the How to Write a Heavy Metal Song manual, but they stay on the brain about as long as Dupree's two-dollar hairspray.