Vera: The 32 years old Ben Averch from Boston started his musical career as street musician and later he was singer/guitarist in the rock band Bison. He does everything himself on ‘Start At The Beginning’ and he reveals himself as multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer. It seems that Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam once gave him fifty dollar for a Bison demo. He is a generous man indeed. Not that it is so bad what we hear on ‘Start At The Beginning’, but not really stunning either. And it has nothing to do with metal or hard rock, so actually it does not suit on this site.
The album includes fifteen songs and has a length of an hour. The roots as singer songwriter of the neat-looking American are obvious. ‘Two Places At Once’ is inspired by Bob Mould. ‘It Ain’t Me’ is a smooth rocking track, while the title track has an atmospheric tinge. And we get a whole bunch of songs which are average rock, yet decent. ‘Pure Energy’ is one of the better songs. One can hear some grunge influences and repetitive guitars. The best feature on this album is the guitar skills. The songs are not that extraordinary. The album occludes with an acoustic version of ‘Western Sky’, a cover of American Music Club. It is possible that the album will be played on American radio shows, but it did not really excite me.
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