You have to admire Krokus the band that sounded like Bon Scott era AC/DC before AC/DC existed are still going strong in their 32nd year and here we have their 18th studio album – a collection of cover songs.
Now cover albums generally fall into a few different categories, none of them usually that inspiring, largely though there’s the ‘go for the hits’ mentality and the ‘lets be obscure’ repost. Krokus sit so far in the ‘go for the hits’ camp it’s not funny, though younger listeners who haven’t done the hard yards sonically might disagree.
Let’s face it there would be few lists of real rock classics without ‘Wild Thing’ by The Troggs, or ‘Born To Be Wild’ by Steppenwolf, and when you add to that the pretty ubiquitous ‘House of the Rising Sun’ by The Animals and tracks like The Who’s ‘My Generation’ you do feel that to a degree you’ve heard it all before.
Saying that, these covers are pretty tasty with a lush sounding ‘House of the Rising Sun’, and a party starting trio of Sabbath’s ‘N.I.B’; Queen’s ‘Tie You Mother Down’ and the aforementioned ‘My Generation’. The only thing I’m not all that taken by is the melodic guitar refrain glossed over ‘Wild Thing’ even though after a few listens it doesn’t seem that strange at all.
Elsewhere Cochran’s ‘Summertime Blues’ gets a fair servicing, and you swear it was sung by Bon Scott’s ghost the phrasing is exactly as you’d imagine him going at it! Indeed the rest is pretty great too it’s only Neil Young’s (Why do people always choose this song) ‘Rockin’ In the Free World’ here that feels a little passé. And what is it with Swiss bands and Bob Dylan’s ‘Quinn the Eskimo’ (first released of course in 1968 by Manfred Mann as ‘Mighty Quinn’)? I know at least three Swiss bands that cover it already, I assume it must have been a big hit over there (Manfred Mann’s version got to no.2 in Switzerland in 1968).
There’s a nice way to close the record too with Krokus covering their own ‘Back Seat Rock N Roll’ – it sounds just fine to me. One for the fans like me. The people of Switzerland have already sent it to number one in the charts!
