Search - Pariah :: To Mock a Killingbird

Texas Best

Christian | Sacramento,CA | 05/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Pariah is an Austin Texas band who signed with Geffen records 6 months to late!
While Pariah should have gone farther than they did,Geffen put all their energy into Guns and Roses.Not that G-n-R were a bad band,they got ALL the promo and time of Geffen,leaving REAL TALENT on the back burner.Pariah was that real talent!
Sad as it is,after the CD was released,
geffen dropped Pariah.Thay went back to Austin,where bassist Sims Ellison lost his love Rene Zelweger(a now famous movie star).The band split and all went on to do some cool stuff....But Austin and Pariahs fans were never the same.
It's too bad !!!THEY ROCKED!!!!!!!!!!"

This one's a keeper.

aeasterday29@hotmail.com | Coshocton, OH | 04/26/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yes, five stars for the band you've never heard of. Actually, while the album is musically tight, lyrically insightful, and a rocking good time; it does not do the quintet justice. I had the full pleasure of seeing them live in various small clubs in Austin, TX. Unfortunately, y'all will never be as blessed, due to the bassist (Sims Ellison) committed suicide in 1995. His younger brother and guitarist(Kyle)had recently been touring with Butthole Surfers. This is all I have heard of any of the survivors. From the ultimate live anthem "Do You Know How to Rock?" to the life pondering "Make Believe (Jesus Freak)" to the Beattles-meets-Guns-n'-Roses "Love to Turn You On" to the butt-boogiein' bass line of "This Means War" this album needs to be played (and listened to) by more people than just me and a dude in NJ. I used to have a copy of their demo tape and a CD they released in Austin for the fans called "Make Believe" featuring some of the same songs, but not as "produced". I would give just about anything to get my hands on these again."

A cool surprise

Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 08/02/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I had never heard of Pariah before, but I decided to take a chance on To Mock a Killingbird when I ran across a copy in a clearance bin. I figured that even though everything about this album pointed to yet another boring alterna-rock release, there was at least some chance that it would be a metal album. Much to my surprise, Pariah's sound is straight-up Sunset Strip hair metal, which I'm always on the lookout for.



The Austin-based band had a sound that was along the gutter-rockin' lines of L.A. Guns, Jetboy, Britny Fox, and to some extent Guns n' Roses. To Mock a Killingbird is a solid, whiskey-soaked, perfectly sleazy barroom rock album that ought to appeal to anyone who's still interested in the Hollywood hair metal scene. Pariah really wasn't offering anything new, but it was still cool to discover another hair metal band that I missed the first time around.



If this album had been released in 1987, everyone would know Pariah's name. Of course, by 1993 absolutely no one was interested in hair metal (I'm sad to say that even yours truly was trading in my Firehouse and Slaughter discs for Pearl Jam and Soundgarden), so this ended up being Pariah's only release.

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