Brent Steed - Horror Avenue N. 7

Brent Steed

Horror Avenue N. 7 
self-released; 2012

3.4 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Have you ever heard of UFO Space Rock?  Yeah me neither until I listened to Brent Steed. As far as I know the genre is self-proclaimed and basically consists of ‘80s type metal mixed in with airy synths. That and Steen sings about UFO-logical & parapsychological matters with thank god some irony. This in a lot of ways sounds like Spinal Tap if they were into aliens instead of Stonehenge.

The album entitled Horror Avenue N. 7 opens with a short intro called “Horror Avenue.” It’s a little less than two minutes long and according to Steed is about “a politician is giving a hypnotic speech to the subjugated population when he breaks off due to what appears to be an alien invasion.” It’s not musical but is a bit funny and ominous. The first song is entitled “Space Kravboy” that further explores the narrative by describing the thoughts and actions of humans against the alien creatures. I would say the music sounds a bit similar to the intro of a Japanimation series. Hey, there’s an idea. It’s a relatively fun song where Steed sports a guitar as his weapon of choice.

 “Mother!” is an ironic cry for help because he doesn't know who he should believe between the sects or his guru Che while “Down On Me” revolves around electronic beats and sounds like nothing else on the album. ”Liar” is the all too familiar tale of an acid rebel attack on everybody that wants to sell you lies by the tower of power. Steed refuses to arm himself with anything other than a guitar to fight off the rebels. The drums are steady and represent something awesome. 

You might think that a song entitled “She’s Just a Punk” is pretty self explanatory - Wrong! It’s about “a light story that points out in general who would have access to a social circle trying to pander to the rules of the insiders but rejected instead” duh! Steed pulls off some 101 style ‘80s guitar leads.

Steed is full of ideas. However I wish a couple more of them were musical. Besides “Down On Me” and “Into Your Heart” the songs sound pretty similar. That being said, this album is oddly enjoyable and has a unique charm that's hard to pinpoint. 

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