| CD REVIEW Svedmetal Records special : Lucky Bastardz - Star*Rats - Vanity Ink |
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Svedmetal Records special Swedish specialist Dirty Rock label Svedmetal sent us an mp3-cdR with three bands’ new albums on it, all due out on September 28th. Underneath a short introduction to the bands. Band : Lucky Bastardz From Alessandria, North-Italy (somewhere smack in the middle of Milano, Torino, and Genova), Lucky Bastardz is Geppo (vocals), Paco (guitar), Evan L.A. (bass) and Mark (drums), and they were signed to Svedmetal after (someone of the label) witnessing several of the band’s Italian shows. Their style is rough, raw, fast, and dirty, influenced by the genre’s Godfathers, Motörhead. In other words, double-kick engine Rock’n’Roll from the harder school! Regretfully, many tracks on the mp3-disc generate a default in my mp3-player, stopping the disc at that point, but the ones I wàs able to hear were proof of the fact that, just because one is influenced by a certain band, one doesn’t necessarily sound like it! In the case of Lucky Bastardz, it would seem that the Motörhead influence came primarily from that band’s early days, when they still played their heavy Rock’n’Metal with strong Blues flavourings! Vocally, Geppo is also different, mostly shouting his hoarse vocals. Two exceptions, for the balladesque opening of “At What Time – Does My Breath Stop?”, and for the acoustic ballad “Café Racer”, which he performs with what can almost be defined as a loud whisper and as spoken word singing respectively. I’m afraid I found no sign of the band on either of the normal audio sources on Internet (there IS a Punk/ Hardcore band from Switzerland by the same name, though), so you’ll have to search for the album on Amazon.com to listen to some samples of the album! 78/100 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Definition of this band on Svedmetal.com: “Heavy Bombastic Rock ‘n’ Roll with elements of Punk, Sleeze, and Metal. On this, the band’s third release, they have worked with double Grammy winner Chris Laney (Crash Diet, Europe, etc) who has done the mixing, and Jan Eliason (D.A.D., C. Aguilera) who has mastered. This together says it all, this one has a killer sound. Cobalt Stargazer/ Zodiac Mindwarp and Celia Ree have participated as guests.” On Perrisrecords.com, you get at least a more elaborate bit of text: “For fans of Skid Row and Buckcherry. StarRats is ready with their new album entitled Screw The Consequences, and they’re not taking prisoners. With new singer Magnus (aka Mr. Whattaf**k) on board, Kass, Post, and Braun finally found the missing link to go from damn good to f**ckin’ awesome J The 14 anthems about love, hate, drinking, (self) destruction, sex, struggle, honesty, lies & more drinking, are a valid statement of what life is like as a Star*rat. Loud, obnoxiouss, narcissistic, depraved, and most of all fun. The style is huge Rock songs with elements of Punk, Sleaze, and Metal. You could say that Star*Rats relates a little to the newer wave of American Hard Rock like Velvet Revolver, Buckcherry, Sixx A.M., & Papa Roach, but yet again, completely their own. The seelf-produced album contains guest appearances by Danish Gold winning recording artist Celine Ree, Zodiac Mindwarp guitarist Cobalt Stargazer, and is mixed by Swedish Grammy award winner Chris Laney. The album is furthermore mastered by Jan Eliasson (D.A.D., Pretty Maids, Christina Aguilera, etc). Live, Star*Rats have headlined frequently in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Holland, England, Germany, and played with international artists like Alice Cooper, Skid Row, Dokken, Zodiac Mindwarp, Warrior Soul, BulletBoys, Britny Fox, Nasty Idols and MANY more…” For my own contribution: Star*Rats have released two previous albums with another singer, namely 2004’s Broken Halo (issued through Adrenaline Records), and 2006’s Rebelütion (Perris Records). They’ve also contributed to 3 compilations [a cover of Rainbow’s “Long Live Rock And Roll” to the 2004 Adreanaline/ Steelheart Records album, and their own tracks “The Devil And I” and “Psycho You” to Perris Records’ 2006 & 2007 compilations Hollywood Hairspray (volumes 6 & 7)]. As far as I can assertain, they started in 2003, and original singer Nico left guitarist Dennis Post, bassist Kass, and drummer Braun in March 2007 to concentrate on his other bands Twinspirits, Crystal Eyes, and Artillery. His replacement Magnus, a Swedish award winning singer-songwriter and Punk/ Sleaze Rocker, is already known from his work with Aztek Sun, EGOdrive, and more. Other notable bands the Star*Rats shared stages with include Royal Hunt, Freak Kitchen, Magnum, Mustasch, Astral Doors, Communic, M.ill.ion, Bai Bang, Iron Fire, Statetrooper, Pretty Boy Floyd, Hot Leg, and Supercharger! They signed to Svedmetal As far as a description goes, I adhere to that of “Heavy Street Rock ‘n’ Roll with Metal and Punk influences”. Check out 5 of the 14 songs at myspace.com/starrats.dk (and in spite of having a “dk” to that adress, the band IS Swedish, apparently from the town of Malmöhagen – which I cannot seem to find on the maps!). 80/100 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From Perrisrecords.com : “For fans of Skid Row & Lita Ford. Finnish Rockers Vanity Ink signs a deal with Swedish record label Svedmetal Records. Vanity Ink hails from Helsinki, Finland, and has so far released two EPs (2004’s …Roadkills and 2005’s Vanity Id A Full-Time Job) and one full-length album (2007’s On Your Skin). The Inkers were born and raised with Rock ‘n’ Roll records and they sold their souls already at their early ages. Many years in this business guarantee the prrofessionalism but their wicked sense of humour and togetherness keeps them yahoo enough.” The comment from Svedmetal : “The Ink’ers, hailing from Finland, were born and raised with Rock ‘n’ Roll and sold their souls in early ages. Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll with a wicked sense of humour and a great female singer. Finland has taken over as the most interesting place for Rock ‘n’ Roll the last years, and Vanity ink prooves why.” Well, again a shorter intro by the band’s actual label, and here’s the additional footnotes. Vanity Ink was founded in 2002, and their current line-up consists of (sexy, teasing) vocalist Annabella, guitarists Juha Bandit and Jussi, bassist Miki Peltola, and drummer Sam Junni. Annabella IS a strong lead singer, but in somewhat in the calmer stuff (ballad “Breathe”,opening and the other calmer passages of “Versus” and “Modern Day Saviour”) her somewhat nasal voice shows its shortcomings. Still, the calmer stuff brings in a nice bit of versatilty (also, the instrumental part of the songs is quite a-okay), and there’s enough exciting moments in the more up-pace tracks! Anyway if you’re into female fronted Dirty Rock, I strongly urge you to surf to myspace.com/vanityink to listen to 5 of the 11 tracks on the album (including two of the “lesser” ones I mentioned above). 82/100 Tony. |
