Untitled Document

For those who want to rock, this one’s free

by ALEXA MILAN

Read more: Sanford Herald - For those who want to rock this one’s free

SANFORD — For Mike Woodell, it was love at first listen. For Stephen Brewer, it was Metallica’s “And Justice for All,” a record he played until it snapped in half. For Kevin Griffin, it was Def Leppard on MTV, “back when they actually played music videos.” Whatever the catalyst, the guys from Sanford-based bands Method to Madness and No Mercy have lived their lives for music.

It fuels their creative energy, and it’s a passion they hope to share with local music lovers at a free concert in Depot Park on Saturday.

“We all believe in our music, and we think it’s something people would enjoy,” said Woodell, Method to Madness’ bassist. “I don’t think a lot of people realize everything that’s going on around town musically.”

Since they live in a town without much performance space, Method to Madness and No Mercy spend a lot of their time touring. But the free outdoor concert at Depot Park gives the bands a chance to share their work with a local crowd.

“It’s an easy way for us to play a hometown show and a more relaxed show on our own terms,” Woodell said. “We can play an hour set here. Usually if we’re lucky we get 30-45 minutes.”

Woodell and Griffin have been playing in bands together since 1999, but they didn’t form Method to Madness until 2006. With influences ranging from Rush and Alice Cooper to The Police and Queen, their goal has always been to avoid a “cookie cutter” sound.

“We come from so many styles of music that it sounds like an amalgam of stuff,” said Griffin, the drummer for both Method to Madness and No Mercy. “It’s primarily progressive rock. But we’re not into yelling and screaming. No Mercy does that.”

No Mercy is rooted in early 90s metal in the same vein as Metallica or Megadeth. Brewer, No Mercy’s guitarist, describes the band’s music as aggressive but with more melodic choruses than traditional metal bands.

“In a lot of new music, there aren’t cool guitar solos anymore,” Brewer said. “That’s what makes metal metal. We’re early metal with some modern influences as well.”

Brewer, Griffin and Woodell all agree that after years of experience, music has become who they are. Woodell bought his first guitar at age 16, Brewer first realized his passion for music at 12 and Griffin has been a drummer since he was 3.

“Pretty much as soon as I could walk, I was playing drums,” Griffin said. “That’s why I never got in trouble in high school. I was nerding out making music.”

Both bands channel their passion into CDs and concerts, mostly in North Carolina because of the expenses touring requires. After their Depot Park concert, it’s back to the recording studio to finish their next albums, “Epic” for No Mercy and “Guilty as Sin” for Method to Madness. Brewer said recording and playing live are both so fulfilling creatively that it’s impossible to choose which is more fun.

“Recording is always fun, because even though it’s stressful, at the end of the day you have a product you put all your time and energy into,” Brewer said. “They’re just two completely different animals.”

Read more: Sanford Herald - For those who want to rock this one’s free

For nearly four years, the Sanford-based band Method To Madness has honed a sound that is truly unique unto them.

The trio, which includes bass guitarist Mike Woodell, drummer Kevin Griffin and guitarist Mike Rodgers, label themselves as a progressive rock band, but there's more to it than that, Woodell said.

"We definitely have all the elements of a hard-rock band, but we try to push our musical arrangements and the craftsmanship of the song to something a little bit different. It's not something you would hear all the time," Woodell said. "And we all try to push ourselves as players, to make it interesting for the listeners."

Before forming Method To Madness, each of the members worked together in another band. The group disbanded over creative differences but reunited in March 2006.

Under their new name, the band released its first album "Human Nation" in February 2008. Their sophomore effort, "Guilty As Sin" is expected to be released in April.

Woodell chatted with the Weekender Street Edition to discuss the band's music and upcoming projects.

Weekender: So you and the other two members were formerly in another band named Calibur. What brought you back together in 2006?

Woodell: We had a another member at the time, and in the end it just didn't work out. Mike left the group for a little while, and me and Kevin ventured on with another guitar player. That really never amounted to anything before Mike came back to the picture.

We all just kind of realized that all three of us musically were all on the same page. We just couldn't come together personally with the singer. Kevin and I had already wrote some new material by the time Mike came back. We thought this could work and decided to go more in the direction that we were originally trying to go for.

Woodell: We have lots of different influences, but a common ground would be Rush. We dig bands like King's X, too. I'm a big fan of Yes, and the list can go on and on.

Woodell: We started recording the new album, "Guilty As Sin." It'll be a concept album. It'll have a story arc from song to song from beginning to end.

Without giving too much away, it's kind of a love story. One certain character is put into a position where ... you can't control things and the things that are happening around you. It ultimately affects the outcome of your life. But I don't want to give it all away.

Woodell: It's definitely a more mature album. We come to a point with playing together that we can almost read each other. And the songwriting has improved so much since the first album. I won't say it's night and day, but it's definitely a lot more intense than the first album.

Weekender: Was it difficult to write the material for "Guilty As Sin," since the songs have to connect for the overall concept?

Woodell: With it being a story type of album, we had to write songs more or less in a story form, linking song to song, concept to concept, to tell the stories. It was definitely a different writing process for us. It was challenging and interesting.

Weekender: So what's next on the to-do list for Method To Madness, aside from completing your album?

Woodell: Once we finish recording our scratch tracks, we should be done in the next couple of weeks. We'll start testing some of these songs in the Fayetteville, Raleigh, Chapel Hill areas and all the North Carolina hot spots. Hopefully, when the album is done, we can start going up and down the East Coast.

And at the last show we performed, we had a film crew come out. They recorded the entire show and the audio, so we're currently mapping all that footage and coming up with some sort of DVD.

Woodell: Our MySpace page and Web site. And almost every couple of weeks, we're doing webisodes on our YouTube page that will chronicle the process of recording. There's a link for that page on our Web sites. And we want to thank everybody for supporting us thus far and hope to see everyone at the show soon.

Method To Madness - Human Nation

Written by Branimir Lokner
Friday, 14 November 2008

METHOD TO MADNESS " Human Nation "
( M & M Productions ) 2008.
CD - USA
Rock/progressive/progressive rock
/hard rock

Out of Sanford, North Carolina. comes act Method To Madness. They work as a trio, and in own production have released a some period ago album entitled "Human Nation" Musically, MTM covers rock and progressive rock elements with strong hard includings.Some influences comes out from the legacies of acts such as a Rush or Kings X, and also are evident traces of 70's period. MTM didn' t offer technical supremacy as a case is with many genre's similiar acts, but its vision more effort gives to authors creativities.Their songs were done mostly in mid to mid-up tempo, and one "coolie" atmosphere dominates through album materials in general. There are also many unexpecting performing transformations, as same as acoustic additionals, and mentioned elements make comparizitions with Canadian legendsRush more realistically.It seems that production, a band has threathed in one so call "old fashioned" way, but that was their choice. "Human Nation" as a album, isn' t easy to acceptable on first listening, and also a band has offered a specific mood with its songs. Even that "Human Nation", isn' t a superior issue, offering materials describes band's visions and shows clear potentials.

Rating : 7/10