Tesla

Like the Black Crowes, Tesla know their classic rock. But unlike Chris Robinson and company, they've never pandered to history. Mechanical Resonance, Tesla's 1986 debut, is a totally exuberant hard-rock throwdown. Twin leads fly across the sky, while Jeff Keith screams his guts out. Tesla even works some California country-rock into the mix. With a mandolin breakdown near the end, "Little Suzi" fuses the testosterone of AC/DC and Thin Lizzy with Poco's L.A. cowboy vibes. What an awesome band.

If the combination of the album title and the group name, a tribute to the maverick
electronic theoretician Nikola Tesla, leaves you expecting something on the order of
industrial synth music, guess again. This is guitar-based hard rock (the inner sleeve even
boasts, "No machines!") of the most predictable sort, distinguished only by a
better-than-average melodic sensibility. Tesla takes a decidedly heavy-metal ap... More >