Marya Roxx - Payback Time

Marya Roxx, Payback Time, landed on my desk for review. A bit of Googling led to a facepalm moment when I discovered the band she was in was the Estonian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, Vanilla Ninja. On the plus side, she had left the band before that entry. A quick look at the video on mute (it was early morning, 7:00am, didn’t want to wake the office staff up), and I recognise the lyrics instantly, Phantom Blue’s Time to Run. This grabs my attention.

So let’s get my one and only problem with this album out of the way, the cover of Time to Run. Let’s be clear, Marya has a great voice, but in trying to emulate Gigi Hangach of Phantom Blue, she really didn’t go for the easy option, so kudos for that. Gigi, in my own personal opinion was one of the most underrated female singers of her time, in fact, the whole of Phantom Blue were tremendously underrated.

Whilst my fellow guitarists will list Satriani, Gilbert, Vai as their inspirational figures, amongst mine are all of those alongside the likes of Tremonti, but also the late Michelle Meldrum, who’s incredible guitar shredding skills knocked me off my feet at Phantom Blue’s gig at London’s Marquee Club. From that gig, I can’t remember if Phantom Blue were the support act, or the headliners, I can only remember them playing, even though I know another band played that night (and Linda McDonald kicking her drums over and jumping on us at the end), I can only remember Phantom Blue. My other problem with Time to Run, the guitars. Paul Crook is no doubt a fine guitarist, but if you play his riff alongside that of Michelle Meldrum’s, the original stands out head and shoulders. That’s no sleight on Crook, because the fact he’s worked with the likes of Meat Loaf shows his excellent calibre.

What about the rest of the tracks? Well, “Oh Yeah” is bound to have people bouncing along, but isn’t one of the strong ones on this album, and the same goes for “Strong”. But “21”, that’s where you see Marya start to come through, hooky guitars, melodic chorus. The first three songs (despite my initial whinge) are decent tracks, but “21” is the one that really got my attention. “Filth” follows on, and here during the main riffs, again we see Marya belt some of the lyrics out, although the chorus doesn’t really give her much opportunity to let loose. “Rebel” sees a great drum intro, the vocals seem a little forced, but following on from that, a great cover of Clawfingers “Nothing Going On” which Marya propels along with suitable venom and spirit.

The final three songs, “Loverboy”, “Payback Time” and “Boneyard”, for my money, are the best on the album. The band behind Marya are as ever, absolutely water tight with their timing, nailing it with such precision that the urge to mosh is overwhelming. The guitars are brilliant, with the bass thundering along underpinning it with some nice drum fills. Absolutely solid.

Overall, we have a decent debut album from Marya who definitely fits the bill as a rock front woman. There are very slight elements of Avril Lavigne about her, but she’s more routed in the Joan Jett, Doro Pesch camp, and she’s streets ahead of the likes of Lisa Dominique. Welcome Marya, welcome to the dark side :o)