There are good albums, there are great albums, and then there are the ones that really define a genre at its best. Rest In Sleaze by Crashdïet is one of those, It is the Swedish equivalent of Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction in my opinion. This month it celebrates its 17th anniversary and all these years later it doesn’t cease to be a lightning in a bottle album that is EVERYTHING you could ever want in a hard rock album, With Rest In Sleaze this Swedish band created one of the most influential hard rock albums of the modern movement.
It’s easy to speculate about what might have been done by this band had band founder, frontman, and guitarist Dave Lepard not taken his own life, and for those of you wanting more music with Dave don’t miss the exclusives on the band’s website: www.dietrecords.org. But had things not happened the way they did we wouldn’t have had albums like Generation Wild or Automaton. If you haven’t heard this incredible album then go listen to it as soon as possible, if you like 80’s style hard rock then this is for you. It’s like Motley Crue, Shotgun Messiah, Ratt, and Skid Row all rolled into one.
The album comes roaring out of the speakers with “knock Em’ Down” with that street level sleaze and swagger that defined the early albums from Motley Crüe and Ratt. “Riot In Everyone ” is one of the greatest hard rock songs ever in my opinion, if you want an example of everything the genre stands for this is one of the songs you should point to. Attitude, Hunger, Defiance, and vicious playing, this song has it all. This song belongs in the same league as “Slave To The Grind” by Skid Row.
“Queen Obscene/69 Shots” could’ve been a sunset strip classic had it come out of L.A. in the 80s, Pure sleazy perfection.
“Breakin’ The Chainz” is almost Guns N’ Roses at their most street level sleaze Rock. “Needle In Your Eye” would fit perfectly on Second Coming by Shotgun Messiah. “Tikket” is very Motley Crüe meets Skid Row with both at their prime, This is hard rock at it’s finest but then again I’d describe the whole album that way.
Sheer decadence is put to sonic glory on “Out Of Line” and “It’s A Miracle” is a mid tempo rocker that is an ode to making a bad choice in your love life.
“Straight Outta Hell” falls somewhere between Motley Crüe and Faster Pussycat, “Back On Track” is another 80’s street level classic. I’d like to add that it’s worth the cost of hunting down the Japanese version of this album for the song “Tomorrow “, I can see why it got cut when seeing how well the rest of the songs flow together but it’s an incredible song in it’s own right.
I could dissect this album further but it would be redundant. The vocals, The Lyrics, the riffs, the bass, the drums, EVERYTHING works here. It’s a perfect album from start to finish that is a master class in everything that makes the genre great. If anyone says rock is dead then have them zl start here and work your way forward, both with their catalog and the genre at large. Join the revolution, listen to Crashdïet.
10/10