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Album Details

• Artist: Amplified Heat
• Album: In For Sin
• Label: Arclight
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: hstisgod on 2004-12-14

All the press kits, bio's and past artist spotlight articles in the world can lay out expectations like gold bouillon bars. But until you actually experience "In For Sin" by Amplified Heat for yourself, you're just day dreaming of fortunes you'll never have. Not to say comparisons to legendary artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Cream, or Tito and the Tarantula's aren't true, but I believe we can do these Austin, TX guys a bit more justice. Lets forget the comparisons for a bit, and focus on something a bit more down to earth. Energy.... lots of it. Like the leaking battery acid of that damn Energizer battery gone psycho, the bluesy waves of punk dribble, raspy voiced lyrical content, and backbone drum secretions drive this energizer bunny beyond the limits of categorizing.

Comparable to 12 cups of coffee intravenously injected into your body, sped up rock in a cup if I may be so bold. Sped up rock may in fact be too cheap an adjective for the three Ortiz brothers. Rather than just tell you how raw, and un-clouded their focus towards music is, how bout I let brother Gian tell you. "We're a working band. We're not looking for fame, fortune, red carpet events and shit. This has always been a dream of mine and my brothers, as well as the one thing that has kept us so close as a family. This is a really big deal for us."

From second one, this C.D. comes off as anything but ordinary rock. The title track one "In For Sin" is an immediate thrust onto the attention span of your heartbeat. Eventually progressing towards the closing of "In For Sin", you'll recognize and rack you're brains for another familiar comparison. Save yourself the strain, I did it for you. After a long frustrating clearing of the fog, I have come to realize the last two minutes of this song resembles an imaginative experiment of "The Lone Rangers" (fictional artist from the cinematic comedy "Airheads") playing B-side Kiss material.

With track three you can feel more secure about those lessons taught by the great and powerful Iron Maiden. Like the simplicity of Wizard of OZ, but with a sense of something more evil behind the power of this creation, "Wagon Wheel" controls the tempo for a solid minute and a half then stretches like Gumby into a guitar solo hybrid of the last 30 years of Metal/Rock.

And so finally all crowds of 15 through 50 year olds can join in the circle of bouncing heads and tapping feet as the intro chords of "Just a Junkie" twitch through. The vibes run bluesy and hookier than in the first three songs here, providing plenty more of that silly comparison action that I seem to grow tired of. At this point, if it's a simple small label EP, I am suggesting tracking it down for mass consumption. But wait, there's more. Blitzing through track seven "The Gunny", these guys package up a punk one-chord song as if it was drunken jam sessions with the wicked and wild Stevie Ray Vaughn. By spending the first and last 35 seconds of this song getting the groove set, the flavor between the bread here will leave you more than satisfied. Like eating a peanut, butter and jelly sandwich without taking the time to even taste it, you'll soon forget your even using store brand flavors.

After two more grind 'em out tracks of distorted indulgence, closing track ten "Reflections" isn't exactly chalk full of the rest of the albums' continuous backbone beat. However, you wont find yourself going from Jam to Jelly, like some of the other artists who have decided to have a "Ah Kumbaya" moment at the end of their C.D.'s . Hey! Where do you think you're going, stick around before you hit the stop button, hidden deep inside track 10 is one of those pesky secret songs. Perhaps the best way to say, screw you guys we're better than a cover band is to hide a perfectly chosen cover of Link Wray's soothing and somber Pulp Fiction contribution, "Rumble". But of course, kick it up, and make sure the soothing somberness gives way to edge and power.

Like I said if you're 15-50, and a red meat eating, habituating below the Mason/Dixon line human being this album is almost a birthright. As for all you who haven't experienced this side of rhythm and blues (are you above that aforementioned line?), just open your mind and forget this C.D. is not on the shelves at Best Buy. Putting the band in the path of the ultimate cliché, Amplified Heat's 2004 release "In For Sin" is combusting with energy.

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