Aping everything from Sabbath to Church

Ok, so the story is the Apes travel down a river in search of the mystical two-headed butterfly and meet a range of interesting characters along the way. Admittedly, without the trusty press kit and program Frenchkiss sent the IDS, this storyline would have completely gone over my head. The best rock operas (like Prince Paul's Prince Among Thieves) match up great material with a comprehensive and fascinating plot, and even the ones with shaky plots (Tommy, the Kinks' Arthur) can often get by on great songs alone. The Apes' fail to coalesce the story of the mysterious butterfly or to offer up diversity with the music itself. Often compared to Black Sabbath with a church organ replacing a guitar, the Apes' fit the description well, though organist Amanda "Majestic Ape" Kleinman plays as if she only knows one riff. Listening to Sabbath records, it's always surprising to realize just how diverse and truly innovative a band it was. By comparison, the Apes fail to offer up the kind of catchy, powerful riffs heavy metal was founded on and Paul "Count 101" Weil's vocals can't cut through the murky music ala Ozzy. These problems combined with the Western Civ mythology amount to formulaic tripe.