Winger - Karma
Frontiers Records
www.wingertheband.com

Rating: B+

Wenger had poofy hair, sang pop metal and lead singer, Kip, even draped his schlong in the pages of Playgirl.  The nerdy kid from Bevis & Butthead wore a 'Winger' t-shirt and Winger found out quickly that the old adage "there is no such thing as bad press" is not 100% bulletproof.  When your fan base is told daily in a popular cartoon, which happens to be the exact demographic you are selling your wares too, bad things can happen.  In the world of rock
the worst thing one can be called is 'not cool.' 

Winger, however, has survived the lean times and now they have a place in pop culture history as the band people love to hate.  Truth is that Kip Winger, Reb Beach and Rod Morgenstern, the main three men in the history of the band, are incredible musicians. Kip recently debuted an orchestra while Reb also plays lead guitar in Whitesnake and Rod comes from the prog masters the Dixie Dregs. 

Skip ahead to the modern day and Winger have released a new CD titled Karma that contains the heaviest, hardest hitting and most well written songs in the band's career.  "Deal with the Devil" kicks off the CD and could be a Judas Priest song.  Kip sings like a metal monster throughout and the guitars are so upfront, distorted and in-your-face that you will swear this
is a powerhouse metal band and not the band that was scorned by Bevis and Butthead back in the day.  "Stone Cold Killer" and "Big World Away" are both excellent hard rock songs as well.  "Always Within Me" has deep lyrics and killer guitar licks from start to finish while  "Feeding Frenzy" keeps the rock a rolling as well. 

The album ends with two epic tracks, the first of which is pure blues and sees Winger singing his ass off.  Clocking in at over six minutes, "After All This Time" groans and grooves while Beach and guitarist John Roth flavor the melody with tasty licks.  "Witness" is even longer at over seven minutes.  This one is more of a ballad but that just means more rocking guitars as the song builds.  In fact, some of the best guitar playing occurs on this softie.  The closing track is an instrumental piano piece titled "First Ending" which is a bonus track.  The short piece was written by drummer Rod Morgenstern. 

Winger has made their best and most complete album ever.  Now that both Beavis and Butt are all grown up, I bet they even own this one - and play it loud and often.

By Jeb Wright