First off Zane Ewton give us his take on this CD

Everyone knows Dave Mustaine is an ass. It must have taken Dave Ellefson a little longer to figure that out. Now after a messy split, Ellefson has come right out of the gates with a new band and a new record. F5 and their record A Drug for all Seasons is a heavy but very melodically minded piece of work. 

Other than a terrible cover of a worse song ("What I Am" by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians), the band sticks to a formula of metal riffing with acoustic touches. F5 is a band with accomplished musicians. Unfortunately it feels that they may be going through the motions. This is metal by the numbers.

Singer Dale Steele sounds like he comes from a long line of metal singers who all sang the same way. John Davis and Steve Conley supply the guitars. While some of the riffs are run of the mill, the acoustic touches add some variety and range. Drummer Dave Small and Ellefson keep the rhythm tight.

It would have been great for Ellefson to really stick it to Mustaine and release a great album that really grabbed the metal community. With A Drug for all Seasons, that metal community might not find enough bite or crunch for their liking. They will find a record that has some promise though. F5 looks to be a band with an interesting vision. Hopefully they can fully realize that vision with another few albums.

Now Kevin Wierzbicki gives us his take on the CD. 

Somehow David Ellefson found time in between his squabbles with his former Megadeth band mate, Dave Mustaine, to record an album with a new band, F5. Apparently the off-stage dust-ups haven't affected Ellefson's ability to concentrate on music as A Drug for all Seasons attests. This is good old heavy rock that's very melodic and geared toward radio play; not so skull rattling that it becomes offensive but by no means fluff, either. Don't expect Megadeth here; think more along the lines of a slightly harder-edged Van Halen. Dale Steele has a strong voice and his singing is not unlike the non-campy side of David Lee Roth. The band picks an odd choice for a cover song in Edie Brickell's "What I Am" where Ellefson boosts the poppy bass line up a little and Steele drives the three-word affirmation home amongst the band's thunder. The version turns out to be the most memorable song on the disc. Ellefson shows off his finesse on the 12-string bass on the set's closer, "Forte Sonata." The instrumental is played entirely on the one instrument but it sounds like bass, guitar, violin and keyboard. After hearing the song one hears subsequent plays of the rest of the record in a different light; being able to pick out subtleties of Ellefson's work elsewhere.

F5 - A Drug for All Seasons

Label:Dead Line Music
 

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