Tuesday, November 29: Sick Speed, “A Time and a Place”
Sick Speed was presumably intended as Rich Ward’s main band after Stuck Mojo broke up, with Fozzy a fun diversion. But the attention and novelty that came from teaming up with Chris Jericho gave Fozzy a surprising momentum that ultimately relegated The Way I Am to one-off status. Then again, the presence of three singers on one record didn’t indicate a clear sense of direction, though Ward’s writing was focused and “A Time and a Place” did have a clear throughline. Perhaps the bigger issue was that Sick Speed was more rooted in hard rock and there wasn’t much of a market for that sort of thing in 2002, whereas the meat and potatoes metal of the sort Fozzy played (or rather covered, since they weren’t recording a ton of originals at that point) was returning to prominence. But “A Time and a Place” was a well-written hard rocker with a hooky chorus, leaning on the catchier aspects of Ward’s writing and working as a head-bobber. It was a bit nondescript in spots, but was nonetheless enjoyable to listen to, even if most in the underground knew Ward was capable of more.
