Prime by Jaw Kneecap – Music Review

The hard rock power trio is a deceptively complicated ensemble. Typically, it’s comprised of a guitarist who switches between playing rhythm and lead, a bassist, and a drummer, of which usually one or more of the three players also takes on the role of singer. When you think of power trios, bands like The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, Rush, ZZ Top, Nirvana and Muse immediately come to mind. Now we can add Jaw Kneecap to that long list of loud legends.

Jaw Kneecap features Mike Leasure on drums (The Walter Trout Band, Albert Collins, and The Edgar Winter Band). It’s no exaggeration to say he’s in the same league as Mitch Mitchell, Ginger Baker, Neil Peart or Dominic Howard. His steady rhythm is the epoxy that holds the tracks together while his fills are full of visceral and vibrant color that breaks like lightening in the midnight musical sky.

Chris Buck is the other half of the Jaw Kneecap rhythm section. Buck not only lays down the bottom on the songs with his bass, but he also acts as the lead vocalist. His voice is a cross between Robert Plant and Getty Lee and, in fact, it sounds like he’s even had a bit of operatic training. It glides over the melodies like a sharp knife worked against a whetstone and cuts through the mix like a Great White shark riding the waves.  In the past Chris has worked on various projects with guitar great Allan Holdsworth and his amazing SynthAxe.

The third member that makes up Jaw Kneecap, Johnny Kap, is the X factor. Google as I might, I have been unable to find any other band associations for this power trio’s blistering guitarist. Kap not only shreds like a savant, but also appears to have contributed in writing most of the songs on “Prime”, their debut album. Apparently, he also gave the band their name. Jaw Kneecap’s bio claims that Johnny Kap, a Canadian native who has since been transplanted to South Carolina, noticed that his new neighbors’ pronunciation of his name sounded a whole lot like they were saying “Jaw Kneecap”. Thus, from the mouths of native Southerners a band was born.

“Prime” (a great name for a first album) is a collection of nine progressive heavy rock tracks. From start to finish it offers tricky time signatures, heart stopping tempo changes and razor sharp melodies performed by topnotch musicians. With guitar, bass, drums and voice making up the bulk of the LP’s instrumentation the occasional keyboard or scant string section briefly guest stars in these pithy productions.

Standout cuts include “Pariah”, which I understand is the upcoming radio single off the CD, is a great example of how these three artists seamlessly mesh with one another yet still manage to effortlessly soar in opposite directions in the course a composition. It begins with a burst of bustling, breathless energy that leaves a listener panting to keep up with all the fast changes that ensue.

Shades of Steve Vai abound in “1221” the only instrumental on the compilation. The tight trio invited classical pianist Charles Szczepanek to tickle the ivories on this piece and the result is as haunting as the Jim Gordon piano coda from Eric Clapton’s rock anthem “Layla”. Each musician gets to repeatedly step into the spotlight over the course of this 3:30 minute ballad.

The string section on the track “Lost Things” reminded me somewhat of “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin. Hints of far eastern modal progressions that meet western electric instruments on a sonic battlefield which results in forging a tightly tempered harmonic framework that leads the listener away from the typically expected tonic note. An unusual device that is certainly clever yet beguiling.

All in all, Jaw Kneecap’s first record is not only a winner, but it’s a great example of what American’s call progressive rock, or prog-rock, and the British refer to as melodic rock. It’s big, it’s muscular and it’s meaty. Like a predator it goes right for the throat and leaves few remains behind when it’s finished. It’s a killer. Or, in other words, it’s “Prime”!