Vocal Performance - 3
Orchestration - 3
Dynamics - 2
Mix - 3
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Death and Taxes comes off like Bon Jovi approximating Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" with "I Can't Save You". This track sounds like hard rock, back before punk and extreme metal made it all so much faster and noisier. Vocalist Jay Link has one of those tear-in-your-beer voices that simply cries out for empathy. Guitarist Michael Cutting, formerly of Holy Soldier, also adds a spot-on lead solo to the mix. This song's lyric, about the inability to change somebody who can really only change when he or she chooses to, will resonate with anyone familiar with drug and alcohol recovery. However, the song would be even more compelling if it had a differing melodic bridge to give the tune added variety. Nevertheless, Death and Taxes seems like a group of true professionals, and might just strike a nerve with rock fans nostalgic for the way the hard rock style used to be during AOR's heyday.
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