Great To The End by Mistletoes and Warheads is a self-proclaimed “epic rock opera” that falls a bit short of that title.

Mistletoes and Warheads is an independent garage rock band from Rochester, New York.

Back in 2011, Nelson Scott began this adventure as a solo project but after releasing a few albums, he became discouraged and decided to take a break.

It was then he was approached by drummer Justin Au-Yeung. After jamming out with Andrew Love, the crew decided it was time to continue to rock.

Before I get into the album, here is the band’s official synopsis of Great To The End.

I definitely appreciate the rawness and unfiltered creativity found when jamming out to some garage rock, but when I read the band’s bio it said:

MW can be best described as the best thing to happen to your ears, ever.

Unfortunately, it is quite far from the the best thing to happen to my ears but that does not knock the talent or songwriting abilities of this group of rockers. They show promise.

They definitely have heart. And a lot of thought and passion was poured into this album, but it’s better to stay humble than to proclaim you have the greatest sound ever [just a tip].

So what’s so bad about it?

Not too much actually. The music jams. I can not deny that, but the vocals are hit and miss…and too much reverb muddy’s up the vocals and makes it impossible to get into the “story” behind the “opera”.

At times the vocal sounds on point but as soon as you start feeling it something happens and it’s gone… 24 minutes in and I was ready to turn it off and move on with my day.

But let me get back to the music and the potential this group shows.

These guys can jam. They are quite creative. And with the amount of thought they put into this album [attempting a “rock opera”] shows they are willing to go above and beyond to create something unique and not necessarily in-the-box.

My biggest beef with this album is that the band created this hype and then when I pushed play I was very disappointed.

In order to achieve “epic rock opera” status, there will need to be improvements including [but not limited to] 1) better, cleaner, consistently in key vocals; 2) small improvements to the mix and overall production; and 3) enough humility to not call yourself the best thing to ever happen to my ears.

When The Who created Tommy, they did not sit down and say “we are going to make a rock opera”. That’s just what the media and society decided to label it. It was epic, it was unique, and it was revolutionary for its time.

Just food for thought.

Connect with the band on Facebook or visit their website.