Page 85 - Classic Rock (January 2020)

Here Is Missing), is what you get high-school dramas. sophisticated and convincing. tuning an already potent rock Burnt Out Wreck
on this record. Ultimately White Reaper just Unlike both Darkthrone and sound the band have taken an This Is Hell
Drummer Gavin Harrison says don’t have the instinct to rip your Emperor, who have used the assured step forward. BURNT OUT WRECKORDS/CHERRY RED
it “really captures the energy and head off – and head-ripping is past as a springboard to broader QQQQQQQQQQ Scot-rocker turns in
spirit of the band”, and it’s hard a requirement of rock stardom. horizons, Mayhem are restrained Johnny Sharp a convincing Antipodean
to argue with that. They’re It’s a pleasant enough album, by an obsession with their past. impersonation.
especially good on the ambitious but not a crucial one. QQQQQQQQQQ Saint Asonia What does
White Mist and the brooding QQQQQQQQQQ Malcolm Dome Flawed Design SPINEFARM former Heavy
Threatening War, fully fleshed Sleazegrinder When you’ve loved and lost Pettin’ drummer
out, live in the flesh. Wolf Jaw like St Asonia… and songwriter
QQQQQQQQQQ Mayhem The Heart Won’t Listen More popular Gary Moat have
Philip Wilding Daemon CENTURY MEDIA LISTENABLE than dessert in common with Phil Collins and
A band unable to escape Black Country trio change their in their native Dave Grohl? Not a whole lot,
White Reaper their past. name and sharpen their teeth USA, Saint really, other than the fact that
You Deserve Love ELEKTRA The most for album number two. Asonia are just like his vastly more famous
You probably deserve better. controversial of Even after the overwrought brainchild of counterparts he’s opted to trade
There’s a lot all black metal the Bad Three Days Grace singer Adam in his sticks for a microphone.
riding on White bands, Mayhem Flowers’ debut Gontier and Staind guitarist Moat formed Burnt Out Wreck
Reaper’s made their album Starting Mike Mushok. The results are five years ago, and their debut,
shoulders at musical reputation with vicious Gun brought about as earnest as you might Swallow, followed in 2017.
this moment in performances which were as them a fair bit of attention last imagine. Each and every song Although a degree of cynicism
time. These constantly-gigging comfortable as bathing in year, they clearly felt that – Sirens, The Hunted, The Fallen traditionally surrounds
Kentucky rockers have made sulphuric acid. A quarter of a rebranding was in order. So for (you get the picture) – sounds drummers-turned-vocalists,
a cottage industry of their feel- a century on from its release, De this follow-up they’re now Wolf like Gontier has climbed a lofty Swallow was a very pleasant
good, poppy, arena-bound Mysteriis Dom Santhanas not only Jaw. And maybe it’s had a peak bare-chested to deliver his surprise, its groove-laden, good-
rock’n’roll – think Weezer without remains the Norwegians’ psychological effect, because vocal, one fist raised, a lonely time, hard-rockin’ boogie sound
the 90s ennui – and You Deserve defining album, it also this is a tightier, hookier set tear rolling slowly down his following in the footsteps of
Love finds the band jumping on to disconcertingly haunts Daemon. which seems to befit the fang- magnificent cheek. AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, Airbourne,
a major label, presumably to take Maybe it’s because Mayhem baring new monicker, with That said, you can see why Rhino Bucket and Krokus. But
over the world. have just toured celebrating the Choke and Lose My Mind typifing rock radio in the States can’t get disregard your suspicion for
There are moments here 25th anniversary of that a riff-driven style that marries enough of them; they sound like a moment, because Burnt Out
where that seems entirely aforementioned debut, but you loose bass-line grooves to Evanescence if Evanescence Wreck have the songs to
possible, particularly on obvious hear its influence all over snapping percussion, as always has a headache. Lusty validate what they do. This
singles like Hard Luck and Real Daemon, the band’s sixth album. frontman Tom Leighton’s blues- and melodic and with just the hugely enjoyable follow-up
Long Time, both of which bring to Now that of itself is no bad thing. rock howl goes on the attack. right amount of angst for those charts a notable maturing and
mind past world shakers such as But Mayhem simply cannot Our old friend the devil appears nights when your Tinder date elevation of the songwriting with
Cheap Trick and Thin Lizzy. hope to recapture the violent as a recurring lyrical image, just didn’t go the way you’d have no loss of balls, attitude or
Elsewhere, though, it just sounds force and dirty energy of those whether upsetting the romantic liked. Little wonder that their wallop – check out supercharged
like gooey indie-rock, with piping early days, and this holds back apple cart on I Lose My Mind or debut took them into opener Dead Or Alive, Paddywack
synthesisers, chocking Warped tracks like Aeon Daemonium and stoking the fires of Leighton’s amphitheatres. And if that or the innuendo-charged Rock
Tour drums and pop-punky Worthless Abominations rage on the thunderous Beast. formula ain’t broke, why fix it? Hard Sticky Sweet for proof.
hooks which sound like the Destroyed, which have the No musical wheels are QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ
soundtrack for bad free-cable potential to be more reinvented here, but in fine- Philip Wilding Dave Ling

ROUND-UP: SLEAZE By Sleazegrinder

Big Stick Mean Jeans

LP ECHOES AND DUST Gigantic Sike FAT
Big Stick slithered out Giving you an idea of
of the New York what this band sound
underground in the mid- like is easy: they sound
80s, sounding like like an eternally teenage
a staticky FM radio stuck Ramones with eternally
halfway between a Shangri-Las song and dumb teenage problems –I Fell Into A Bog,
a loop of a revving chainsaw. After morphing Just A Trim (Don’t Buzz Me, Alright) – and
into the pre-eminent drag racing electro- the whole thing is a gasser from start to
punk band in the 90s, they’ve returned with finish. The minute-and-a-half-long What
this collection of crunchy, throbbing The Fuck Is Up Tonight might be the
rock’n’roll insanity that’s as sexy and greatest rock’n’roll song written
destructive as a flaming stock car pile-up. this decade.
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Schizophonics Zodiac Panthers
Suicide Bombers: hard-
core rock’n’roll for hard- People In The Sky PIG BABY Hexray Vision SELF-RELEASED
core rock’n’rollers. Schizophonics are Zodiac Panthers are
a power trio from four furious, leather-
Suicide Bombers San Diego who bound rockers who
another band in operation that manages I’ve gotta go with the frankly amazing We ostensibly play garage sound like Apocalypse
Murder Couture SELF-RELEASED
to capture the sticky sweet glamour, Don’t Negotiate With Terrorists, both for rock. But just imagine Dudes-era Turbonegro
After an amusingly streetwise grit, pinballing teenage sexual its glistening Shotgun Messianic riffs and that the garage is engulfed in flames and stripped down to nothing but sneers,
over-the-top Sigue energy and gloomy suburban nihilism of its majestic climactic ode to Johnny nobody cares. This is party rock if every howls and fist-fights. This is back-to-
Sigue Sputnik-esque Hanoi Rocks better than the Bombers. Thunders (‘Down to kill! Like party ended in multiple homicides. I’m basics, bloodsport rock’n’roll like we
intro, Oslo’s suicide You can pick your own faves – the a motherfucker!’). This is not a drill, not sure if there’s a more exciting made it in the good ol’ days, with spit
bombers launch into infectious title track is particularly easy man. This is what you came here for. rock’n’roll band in operation right now and and cigarette smoke. So primitive you
one of the most consistently rocking on the ear, and Madman is an 80s Euro- This is hard-core rock’n’roll for hard-core if there is then I’m sure my heart couldn’t may regress into a caveman before the
albums of the year. With the obvious spandex chug-fest that rivals Oz for rock’n’rollers. take it. record’s over.
exception of Mike Monroe, there isn’t cheap headbanging thrills – but for me, QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ

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