Tesla – Into The Now

Release Date: March 9, 2004
Reviewed by Jeff Brinn

Tesla have always been known for their knack of making the good old traditional rock and roll staple song. With such lighter saluting classics as “Little Suzi” and “Modern Day Cowboy” pushing Tesla into rock arena stardom it all but came to an end with the birth of grunge. Well, Tesla have returned with their original line up to try and regain the airwaves that garnished them more then 17 million albums sold worldwide. From the opening title track “Into The Now” Tesla actually pull off a pretty good mix of their traditional past sound with a very bombastic production not falling prey to an easily expected re-hash of a movement that has all but died. Of course the obvious power ballads are strewn thru out this album but if you can over look a few mundane acoustic tracks Into The Now actually rocks pretty hard. One obvious complaint is the very stupid use of a DJ scratching on the first track giving the impression that Tesla are trying to attract the newer generation of so-called Nu-Metal fans that shouldn’t be even desired. If you are at all searching out a band that has that 90’s rock groove Tesla have easily hit the right chord. Mixing a lot of the old with just enough of a new sound to not come across as a washed up arena band Tesla stick to their guns as a very traditional rock band.