Metal Underground.com

To call Jean Beauvoir eccentric is a huge understatement. The American-born Haitian known for his bleached white mohawk somehow manages to pull off his unique look and his mix of Christian-tinged slightly AOR, glam-inspired music rather well. Or at least he did, until Crown Of Thorns' latest release "Faith."

It's rare that I don't listen to an album all the way through the first time, but I found myself continually finding excuses to get up and do something else while "Faith" was playing. Though the first two tracks, "Faith" and "All In My Head" are typical Crown Of Thorns fare, by the third track, the songs start to drag.

By the fourth track I could sum up the album by saying this: the compositions are weak, the transitions are rough, the lyrics are cheesy, and the guitar shreds are dated. These songs are nothing compared to "Dying For Love," a solid Crown Of Thorns song from '93, though even it sounded dated back then. Today's songs haven’t changed a bit, though it's nearly a decade later.

The US version of "Faith" includes three bonus tracks, and for American listeners I have to say you got the best version of the album. Crown Of Thorns manages a decent cover of "Born To Be Wild" and their "Motorcycle Loretta" surprised me. More 70's styled rock than anything else, "Motorcycle Loretta" is a pretty good tune, though it seems out of place among this collection of melodic rock.

"Rock Ready" is the best "Faith" has to offer, with its AOR feel and a guitar shred that begs for a live performance. Unfortunately it's followed up by an overly mellow tune called "Believe Me," in which every time Beauvoir sings "you" it sounds like "jew."

Crown Of Thorns fans may have waited ten years for a new release under Frontiers Records, but if "Faith" is any indication of what Beauvoir has been up to these last ten years, I don’t have much faith that he's used his time wisely.