Saturday, February 11, 2012

Truckstop Lovechild - Three Chords From the Truth




TRUCKSTOP LOVECHILD “Three Chords From the Truth”
(Zodiac Killer)

Groups of friends are gathered at a bar chatting and drinking.  A local band comes and plays. Most people continue talking but a few heckle the band and a few intoxicated brave souls get up and dance.   The next day everything about the band is quickly forgotten.  The only thing setting Truckstop Lovechild apart from that band is a memorable name. This band plays hard rock with a slight punk edge. There are a few songs here that aren’t unlike later Rollins Band but there’s none of that band’s energy or intensity.  On songs like “Speed Freak”  and “Dirty Air” Vince Ferarri sounds a lot like Henry Rollins but has an even more limited vocal range.  It’s frustrating because there’s a remote possibility that the band could convey some emotion and excitement with a furious frontman.

There’s more than an inkling that this band would really like to convey a sense of danger and hard partying with both early Motley Crue leads and song titles like “I’m Drunk” and “Liquor Store”.   There’s a moment of identity crisis or maybe they just want to make sure the listener knows the band lives for drugs and rock ‘n’roll on “Girl on The Hill” where the band try their hand at stoner rock and come up with half-baked results.   The album closer “Rock It” is a song that any average high school hard rock band could have written.   The report card comment written for Truckstop Lovechild is “Needs to try harder”.

1/5


Friday, February 10, 2012

Hansel - Mission to Rock





Hansel “Mission to Rock” EP, 2008
(Pussycat Records)

It seems difficult to believe but the disappearance of glam metal on a grand scale is nearing twenty years.  However Australians Hansel seem intent on either bringing it back by playing a style they seem to love.  Other than the band’s dress sense there’s very little here to suggest this is a parody of that particular era of music.  The band looks too young to have witnessed hair metal first hand.  Looking at the photos of the band there is a seventies glam dress sense but I’d bet you’d have to be tough or simply insane to be male and wear make-up in a rugby league-loving industrial coastal city like Newcastle.  So to escape possible beatings there’s no obvious guyliner or other similar trappings here.

The opening track “Murder 101” starts with keyboards leading into a song with an anthemic quality that brings the radio-friendly rock of Skid Row and Bon Jovi to mind.   There’s a Van Halen element of fun injected into “Mission to Rock” and “Shot down for Love”.  Originality shouldn’t be expected from a throwback band but for those who grew up back when radio programmers favored this music the lyrics will seem highly cliched.    There is a big production sound which suits their style and makes blindly guessing their country of origin extremely diffcult.  There’s potential here as HANSEL are definitely musically proficient and do have strong song-writing ability but instead of looking back at their chosen genre predecessors they could do well to take a few uncalculated risks.

2.5/5

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Superchief - Rock Music






Superchief “Rock Music”, 2009
(TFTC )


With some of today’s band names and album title choices are sure to cause confusion for uninformed music store employees, Superchief took the less puzzling option and have chosen an album title that is a useful filing too but unfortunately also suggests a band bereft of imagination.   Whether it helps or hinders Superchief’s cause, there’s no denying “Georgia Trucker Fun” runs incredibly close to recent Clutch right down to the vocals.  Although the vocals are gruntier, “Sweat” walks in the footprints that Soundgarden laid down on “Down on The Upside”.  In the intro, there’s exactly the same tinge of Pink Floyd that permeated the Seattle band’s final album.  
The stoner rock fuzz guitar blares out for attention in “Amen” with the vocals fading into the background.    A psychedelic haze washes over  “Bus Ride Messiah” with wah-wah guitar voyaging in for the ride.

Whilst Superchief aren’t a bad band, it’s difficult to put my finger on it, but this disc just doesn’t click with me at all.    I’d just much rather be listening to any of the bands that Superchief are reminiscent of than listen to “Rock Music” again.

2.5/5

Superchief on myspace

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Kreator- Hordes of Chaos






Kreator “Hordes of Chaos”, 2009
(SPV)

I must have fallen asleep for twenty years because the last Kreator full length I remember hearing was “Extreme Aggression” which I bought on cassette the year it came out.  Somehow after that they fell off my personal radar as there were new and undiscovered bands and genres.  It’s a piss weak excuse but it’s the truth and I can handle it.  Anyway, from the sounds of this album Kreator have been doing much the same. The “Hordes of Chaos” intro has a small but noticable part with riffs borrowed from “Battery”.  There’s a symphonic lean on this song but Mille’s spits are ever present and the song keeps veering down the narrow thrash metal alley.  While the first three songs are tight thrash metal, on “Amok. Run.” Mille Petrozza croons Andrew Eldritch style.  That’s right, he sings like The Sisters of Mercy guy instead of the expected spitting razor blades snarling vocals but relax, it’s only on the start of the song as it twists into a thrash song and the vocals and the music breathe the intensity of the Kreator of yore. Screamo bands should take out their notebooks, as this song is a lesson on how it should be done.  Everyone else get the red wine out.  Don black clothes and dye your hair black right now.  There are also gothic overtones “To The Afterborn” with its slow build up and chants before the speed kicks in and leaves the listener needing false teeth due to the thrasing smash.

However there are a number of moments on this album where Mille sounds like Steve Souza or his present replacement and the band as a whole suffer from Exodus envy. The main offender is “Radical Resistance” which sounds like it could have been a “Fabulous Disaster” track.   “Absolute Misanthropy” though will please purists as it sounds exactly like the Kreator of twenty plus years ago.   This song makes it clear that anger is still bubbling in their veins and listening to these guys vent their heated rage is still a pleasure.

This album was apparently recorded to be a reflection of the band’s live qualities and avoid computer trickery in the recording process.   There are a few tracks that have a definite studio feel as opposed to the live rawness. Especially noticeable areVentor’s punishing drum sounds, which are so clear that they give the impression of a studio filled with a trail of damaged skins. Despite being above many other thrash metal bands, there’s really too many riffs borrowed here for “Hordes of Chaos” to be considered classic Kreator since they’re capable of much better.

3.5/5

Kreator bandsite

Kreator on myspace

Kreator on facebook

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The Abominable Iron Sloth - The Id Will Overcome






The Abominable Iron Sloth -“The Id Will Overcome”, 2010
(Blackmarket Activities)

After days of rain it becomes difficult to stand let alone walk on fields that were covered grass.  If you’re wearing thick rubber boots, they squelch underfoot and if the deluge of rain has been particularly heavy, there’s a guarantee that the boots will entrenched in thick mud, making the simple everyday task of walking difficult.  Your walking pace will be much slower than normal and it might be tempting to scream as you sink down deeper with each step.  

 The Abominable Iron Sloth are not only familiar with these feelings but force them back upon an often hating and unsuspecting world.  A fight against an overwhelming sinking is conveyed through the screeching rat vocals and Sabbath styled downtuned guitar.  Doomy drums and sludgy guitar muck are churned in a punkish concrete mixer.   Through the dirt, clean vocals do make a hasty appearance on “Big Iron Door” and the title track but their brevity ensures they don’t distract from the overall filth-encrusted listening experience.

Throughout the album, wrecking ball heaviness almost never lets up or down for that matter.  An unfortunate part is that one of these things is not like the others, the aptly titled “Herodox Non-conformists” is droney and just too damned long clocking in at just under the fourteen-minute mark. The product of a Sunno))) fan’s wet dream is an unfortunate square peg.   The other songs won’t sap time off your lifespan as they got the business done quickly as it should be, in around two and a half minutes.  Whilst Justin Godfrey’s vocals have little in the way of variety, they just add to fact that there’s a sandpaper on skin raw abrasiveness almost throughout the music on the disc that should cause the band to lift their heads high.  Now if you excuse me, I have an itch to scratch until it bleeds.

3.5/5

Monday, February 6, 2012

Gonzales - Checkmate










Gonzales “Checkmate” , 2008
(Chorus of One)

Italian band Gonzales play pedal to the metal  punk ‘n’ roll not unlike Scandanavians  Hellacopters and Turbonegro. The drummer has even chosen to use Cobra as a last name.     It’s clear that are a band with nothing but rocking out on their minds “Nothing to Lose” does exactly what an opening track on an album should and gets attention with its thick and fuzzy guitar sound.
         Marky Moon’s has a singing style that, at times, is reminiscent of Mike Ness of Social Distortion and this comes out clearest on the revved up Johnny Cash cover of “Ring of Fire”.

 “Heaven Gone Wrong”  is a track of pounding rock with a simple beat, flowing guitars and whoah whoah choruses.  It is proven once again that the simple things are often the best.  “Fiesta” thumps along with its raise your fist chorus and some great leads break out though the distotion.  The band slow it down a little on “My Son”. This isn’t a bad album by any means but after this review, it’s unlikely to listened to again as other bands have done what Gonzales have done much better.

2.5/5

Gonzales of myspace

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Remain Opposed - Time Waits for No One






REMAIN OPPOSED  “Time Waits for No One”, 2009
(Pee Records)

On their myspace page, Remain Opposed claim to “bring a blend of their own brand of punk rock with a hardcore edge void of any fashion trends, bells or whistles”.  While their sound might be somewhat unique in Australia, the ugly warts and all truth is their sound is the band sound exactly like The Offspring circa 1992 right down to the vocals.   Other than in the band’s choice of name, the hardcore edge could only mean the shouted gang-vocals on the title track or “Somebody Else’s Heroes” or maybe the near rapping on “How Far Will We Fall Down Dead”.     One track with the obvious nod in the title to the band’s main influence is “Ignite”, which includes what the hardcore kids of today would describe as a  “short breakdown”.    As much as I hate using the word dated, it appropriately describes this band’s sound for me as I would have been all over this band’s brand of pop punk fifteen years ago but unfortunately for Remain Opposed, their album title is prophetic as times have changed.    The entire album can be grabbed from the bandcamp link below.

2.5/5

Remain Opposed on bandcamp

Remain Opposed on myspace



Beastwars - IV

After over a year off for various reasons, we have returned solely because we wanted to review the new Beastwars album. I really w...