Sometimes you read press releases from bands who don’t have English as their first language and have a chuckle at some of the wording but there’s no excuse really from an agency getting it wrong, I mean press releases are never the most original of documents in the Rock and Metal scene generally so it’s not hard to make it readable. My Spanish of course is awful…
Anyway, here we have from San Sebastian Spain a Hard Rock band who profess a love of the old 80’s style Hard Rock (the usual suspects – Ratt, Motley Crue, LA Guns, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Poison and Skid Row) along with a “European touch” (from Gotthard, Europe and Bonfire) as well as my favourite bands of the era – Hanoi Rocks and Dogs D’Amour and the newer breed of Hardcore Superstar, Crazy Lixx and Backyard Babies.
And I mention all that only because really they sound like none of the above, sure there’s a Sleazy leaning but this is actually more elemental Hard Rock, just as much Motorhead and bands like Wolfsbane who took that heavier edge to melodies as they are anything else. The difference is that they play a relatively melodic selection of songs that gives a nice hard-edge to what otherwise might stray into Melodic Rock territory, here it’s firmly headbanging time.
Opener ‘Loud Machine’ is a decent song with a Motorhead-like burst from the traps before a Judas-Priest-like tempo kicks in; and ‘Brand New Flame’ that follows keeps that dirtier rocking sound going like WASP at their most accessible, but tempers it with more melody. Next up ‘The Way of Sorrow’ is a nice melodic hard rocker with chunky guitars that have you imagining AC/DC playing Dokken songs or vice-versa.
‘Time’ starts out heavier, riding a growling riff before getting into a Def Leppard-like grove replete with gang vocals and a nice lick of attitude; ‘Falling Star’ has a hard exterior and a nice amount of melody and ‘Bad Dog’ just about addresses an errant hard edged funky riff that isn’t bad at all; before ‘Hell of a Day’ drifts in over the horizon coming across all vaguely Bon Jovi before cranking up to get to the real song which has hints of early eighties Metal and Dokken at its edges.
‘Whatever You Are’ is the ballad that you just weren’t expecting… I’m not sure what to say, it’s OK but the worst thing here and the days of obligatory ballads on rock albums died when MTV sold its soul to Rap and RNB…
Normal service is resumed though with ‘Living Dead’ though it only partially picks up the pace with a jangly Bon Jovi-like intro before adding some Bluesy guitar to the mix, something that hasn’t been hinted at before. The Southern-tinged ditty isn’t the worst thing here just a little at odds with the rest; and ‘Wet’ which closes really gets the pace right back where we like it and leaves you with a rocker that makes you feel tired by the end of it,like all the best should,it’s the nly song here that really makes you think of the Sleazy rockers name-checked in the press release.
Maybe the best Spanish Rock release I’ve heard in many a year.