A SOCIAL GRACE

When I was living in El Cajon, CA, right next to an obscure looking record shop called Blumeanie Records, I never knew that it's a place where I could find the most progressive music of the day. You know who owned this shop? It was Norm Leggio, the drummer from Psychotic Waltz. I met him, I talked to him about all kinds of music; when I asked him about some excentric stuff I could listen to, he walked me over to the isle and he pulled out Social Grace. Yet I never knew HE is a member of this band until much later. He just asked me to tell him next time I see him if I liked it. Yes, I liked it a lot. It was all weird, with Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull and all dark elements metal/some jazz/blues infuence, intricate lyrics, agressive drives and then dreamy like parts with dark stuff; yet all somehow optimistic in it's own, special way. I don't play this record very often but when I do I always kick myself in the head wondering why I let it sit in a dust for such a long periods of time.

This album is simply weirdly magnetic; once you've listened to it, it gets to you. Perhaps the reason why I don't listen to it that much is because it is completely unconventional piece of music; it grabs you by your hair and makes you wonder about yourself more than anything I've ever heard before - it scares you about you. The lyrics are so real and haunting - they serve as a mirror to yourself. Music itself is not perfect by any means - it's purely a natural force with it's imperfections but somehow it all serves a purpose with it's melodies and hunger to express one's self.

These days, I still visit Norm's store, although it's on a different street and not so amazingly brutally magically hot "metal head fanatic" shop anymore, as he is playing in the back of his store with some other guys some genre of speed trash metal that I happen not to like much.

Buddy Lackey has changed his name, moved to Austria and started a "band" called Dead Sould Tribe that I like a great deal.

It looks like these guys will never again record anything as Psychotic Waltz, judging by how Norm envies a "Devon" a bit. But who knows. Perhaps one day they will surprise us. Until then, I will enjoy Psychotic Waltz as one of most unusual, most real and unique groups of musicians ever assembled. And I must tell you, Norm is one cool a dude, even though I really do not like his present project as much as I love Psychotic Waltz. But I love him as a human being.

Five stars for originality, five stars for lyrics, three and half stars for musicianship, three stars for a sound quality. That brings us to an average of 4.1, right?