On their homepage, they call themselves simply a "Southern Rock Band"! This is true, but limiting this first-class group to "only" classical Southern Rock does not do them justice! "The Cell" comes from beautiful Prague, in the Czech Republic (!!!), and it plays refreshing, unencumbered classic rock/blues whose retro base is timely and up-to-date. The group is built around the great U.S.-singer/guitarist David Gore (coming from Louisiana), who impressively proves that this style of music can survive in Eastern Europe. Around Gore is a group of elitist, experienced musicians from the Czech bluesrock scene who present 11 original compositions (written by Gore and guitarist Michal Benes) which are convincing by their successful melodies, as well as their crisp, spicy and powerful arrangements! The songs are dominated by a full 3 guitar line-up, drums, bass, pleasantly filled in with organ passages and, besides Gore's striking voice, there are the splendid, voluminous voices of the southern soul female background singers which sound in the best manner like Lynyrd Skynyrd's Honkettes! Very persuasive song material! At the beginning of the album, there are two genuine, classic southern rock numbers: At first, the great "The blues never stops" with its Lynyrd Skynyrd style licks and the strong, twin, fat guitar solos in the middle. This is followed by the bluesy, riff-filled, full muggy swamp atmosphere of "Ready for a ride", which honors its title and really comes across like an imaginary roadtrip through the U.S. southlands. Great female background voices, fine organ playing and at the end, an ingenious Wah Wah solo. Spicy! Authentic! There are also a few convincing ballads! For example, the melodic "Out of time " with its nice, clear acoustic riff and a great guitar solo in the middle (similiar to 38 Special and Foreigner but without the synthesized sound), or the grooving "Dreams inside my head"! Also, the classy southern-flavoured melodic riff rocker "Burnin' like a fire ", the rocking blues-boogie "Third bitch in a row", the classic, current, very much southern grooving, earthy guitars surrounded blues "Down", as well as the funky riff-based, but uncommonly loose, ear candy "Long gone" which reminds one a little of the Doobie Brothers. The group have been playing the local southern rock scene and rightly so, have already become successful there, as well as having an appearance at the famous "Gator parties" (southern rock festival in Germany)! This is a fine debut and we already look forward to, and have high expectations for, the next album. "Southern Fried Bohemian Blues-Rock" from Prague describes their sound very well! The group, by the way, is managed by Kalle Ramming (the "domestic" southern rocker who, among other things, became famous with his former collaboration with the German southern rock group Flatman) and produced the album together with the group. "Are you ready"? ... - of course, we are ready for The Cell!

Some things are strange. A Yank as a singer of a Czech group which devotes itself to classical southern rock, or something very similar to southern rock. But what is, actually, classic southern rock? Small tip: "Southern rock is hype, nothing but hype!", as Ronnie Van Zant (lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd)once said. Well, the hype is long over. Today, Southern rock is often a meeting place of diehards with strong reactions to music (of many fans and some groups) that is sometimes terribly in. On the other hand, there probably is barely nicer music than these guitars, especially if they indulge in endless solos alone and together, the wonderful piano tones in the well-known Honky-Tonk style, and above all: these spectacular singers who, over and over again, sound so properly after a guy and not after some cissy. We have already mentioned the southern singer masterpiece (Ronnie Van Zant from Lynyrd Skynyrd) which is the one on top. Many others came afterwards and I am still glad about every new one which is capable of shouting and singing melodically. With Mr. Gore, from THE CELL, we again have discovered such a singer. Who are THE CELL anyway? They are Czechs, some from the fallen Czech southern rock group GENERAL LEE, plus Gore,who came to Prague and liked it so much that he didn't want to go back to his native country. Prague is dreamlike, but not really a mecca of rock and roll. These days, the music consumer bends every group to some type of classification. With THE CELL he will get into real trouble. This is not southern rock like LYNYRD SKYNYRD. CHARLIE DANIEL'S is also the wrong classification. GREGG ALLMAN too. So what are they? If you can't find what style they are, it doesn't matter, because their style searches You out! Primarily, THE CELL are like themselves, since THE CELL sound like a fresh rock band which has a desire for melody. And they do not sound like a volume band from the Bible Belt, rather more like a modernized, worldly version from Europe. How refreshing. Before now some people were frustrated: Thank goodness for THE CELL, no NuRock or other hipster junk. They naturally flow in the traditions of good old rock music, absolutely show off with three guitars (and now somebody say to me that 3 guitars on the edge of the stage does not look magnificent) and at the same time sound like groups from the 70's. But they do not play in a blind rage, as some bands do; here creativity is announced. If one absolutely needs a classification, maybe this will help. They are like 38 SPECIAL without every mainstream flow, or terrible radio compulsion with the hideous synthetic orgies of the eighties. This diminished their (38 Special's) great technical and songwriting abilities which revolved around a teeny-weeny jam factor (the song "Long Gone" from THE CELL, for example, sounds similiar to the band JUPITER COYOTE). THE CELL have such pearls on their first album, entitled "Are You Ready?". Whether you take the high class rocker "The Blues Never Stops" (the accompanying video runs on Czech television) or the slightly marshy grooving "Ready For A Ride", to the swinging up tempo number "Third Bitch In A Row" with crazy guitars and excellent hammond organ, to the overriding, female singers song "Backdoor Woman". The ballads are unembarrassing and nice, the rockers in the best way possible free of all stereotypes and also, if not all of the songs are at the highest level, they have managed to reach a level which is almost comparable to U.S. groups. This also counts for the production which is crystal clear and without every useless rubbish precisely on time, the things which you find on timeless rock records. If we spoke a little further about radio, the DJ's of some stations should sometimes play numbers like "Dreams Inside My Head". THIS is a perfect song for the Jukebox. Or must it always be FOREIGNER or "Hold On Loosely" if classic rock is to be played? "Are You Ready?" is a very good CD. The type which one puts on over and over again and is really glad to discover new delicacies each time.

The Cell sings in English, play classic rhythm and blues and have intelligent songs. And the main surprise, they are not "Czech".....if you compare them with other bluesrock groups, The Cell are more rock oriented and are far from playing orthodox 12 bar blues. But this is in no way a complaint.

"Southern rock? Well, it's dirty blues, but a little harder sounding and has a boogie inside. But mainly, it's got to have balls!" says David Gore, Louisiana (USA) native and frontman for The Cell. With good ideas and melodical songs, The Cell creates home-made southern rock but not in the classic, orthodox sense.

Ilja Ku?era - Muzikus 12/2004