It doesn’t happen very often but some bands come along who really move the needle in rock n roll, they create a dividing line where you can separate the established bands of the genre and it’s next evolution. Crashdïet is one of those bands. Their sound brings to mind a hybrid of Shout at the devil era Motley Crue, Slave to the grind era Skid Row, and Second coming era Shotgun Messiah. In 2005 these guys released an explosive, lightning in a bottle debut album Rest In Sleaze. That album is in my opinion the Swedish equivalent of Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction and it went on to inspire tons of bands across the world.
A horrible tragedy occurred after it’s release and their original singer/guitarist/ band founder Dave Lepard committed suicide. That would be enough to tank most bands but eventually Crashdïet continued on with other singers Oliver Twisted (A.K.A. Olli Herman from Reckless Love), Simon Cruz from Jailbait, and now Gabriel Keyes who made his debut with their last album 2019’s Rust.
Crashdïet’s 6th album fittingly titled Automaton symbolically represents a band that has powered forward no matter what obstacles were put in its path, Like a machine that can’t be stopped. This album is at once influenced by and respectful of their past and yet forges ahead, if you’re a fan you’ll find the album intro “Automation” very touching, There’s a clip of the king of sleaze Dave Lepard speaking towards the end.
This moment catches you unaware before the album’s second single “Together Whatever” hits you like a freight train, this is a powerful dose of high octane sleaze metal that sets the pace for the rest of the album extremely well. “Shine On” starts out with a short burst of synth beats before continuing the break neck assault.
The album’s first single “No Man’s Land” reminds me a lot of fellow Swedish icons H.E.A.T with it’s melodic, epic riffs and features a great guitar solo, Gabriel shows some of his impressive vocal range on this track.
“Darker Minds” scales back the tempo a bit which gives guitarist Martin Sweet space to let the melody shine in the guitar solo in this song. Chugging riffs and powerful drums kick off “Dead Crusade” there are moments where Gabriel sounds like Dave on this song, though I’ll say in sheer vocal ability Gabriel is the best singer this band has ever had. This song also features another great guitar solo. My personal favorite song on this album is “powerline” the supercharged playing in this song and it’s epic chorus will make for a great song in their live set, This song also features guest vocals from Michael Starr of Steel Panther, the combination of these two excellent vocalists is a real treat.
“Resurrection Of The Damned” is another incredible sleaze metal track filled with great playing and rock n roll swagger. “We Die Hard” sounds like it was pulled straight from their Rest In Sleaze era, Pure anthemic mid tempo sleaze excellence. “Shell Shock” is a hard hitting track that harkens back to their Simon Cruz era but I’d say it’s heavier and has some surprising synth beats mid song, this song just slams!
“Unbroken” is an exciting charging anthem that has Gabriel hitting that awesome high register he does so well, It keeps the momentum with a small slower breakdown in the middle before ramping back up with another great solo, I’d love to hear this song live. The album ends with a power ballad “I can’t move on (Without You)” beautiful acoustic playing accents Gabriel’s soaring vocals and a great melodic bass line from bassist Peter London, the song builds to an epic power lift towards the end. This is how you should end an album, on a major high note that leaves you dying for another time through.
This album is extremely impressive! It doesn’t short change the listener with a short run time and it doesn’t drag on longer than it should, the song writing on this is the most complex and airtight of the bands career, each instrument shines and the playing is incredible. Gabriel Keyes proves yet again his impressive vocal ability, on this album in particular I think he really plays to the song and let’s the melody tell him where to take things, something that really plays to the albums advantage.
Automaton is everything you could want in a Crashdïet album, it’s both a standard bearer and an evolution for one of the greatest rock bands on earth.
9/10