BPMD – American Made

BPMD

American Made

Napalm Records

Heavy Metal

FFO: Ted Nugent, Mountain, Grand Funk Railroad, Aerosmith, Overkill, Adrenaline Mob

BPMD. Yep, that name will have you perplexed; but the acronym stands for Bobby Blitz, Mike Portnoy, Mark Menghi and Phil Demmel and is yet again another project started by Portnoy. On the back of a relatively quiet formation, BPMD have managed to slip out their debut studio album ‘American Made’.

                What the listener gets with ‘American Made’ is an album of 70’s rock songs featuring the likes of Ted Nugent, Mountain, Grand Funk Railroad and Aerosmith turned up to 11 and given the heavy metal treatment. Naturally, with musicians of top-drawer quality such as this quartet, these ten covers are tight and musically nigh on perfect with Blitz demonstrating just how versatile of a vocalist he can be. However, when it boils down to it, that is all this album is, covers; therefore, it is easy listening, but it cannot be helped thinking that ‘American Made’ feels like an album of bonus tracks; leftovers or a bit fun after an album has been completed.

There may be a younger generation of people out there who are not familiar with some of these songs and it would provide a good stepping stone into the 70’s American scene. But ultimately, this album is worth listening to at least once, but it doesn’t offer much more after that and is it enough to make you part with your hard-earned cash? In all honesty? Probably not.

Adam McCann