| CD REVIEW Bai Bang |
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Band: Bai Bang I’d héard about this Swedish Glam Rock act before, and that’s quite natural, because traces of the band go back to the late ‘80s, with the band releasing their debut album Enemy Lines in 1988…and things even go back further than that, since the band evolved from the Boobie Liquer Band, which adopted the monicker of Double Trouble in 1983, then issued 4 singles and an album before again changing names to Bai Bang. Over the years (during which the band sparingly issued further full-length studio albums: 1991’s Cop To Con, 1996’s Ridin’ High, and 2000’s Attitude) the line-up constantly changed as well, making singer Diddi Kastenholt the only remaining original member in the current line-up, now also comprising guitarist/ backing singer Pelle Eliaz, bassist/ backing singer Joacim “Jokke” Sandin (entered 1995), and drummer Jonas Langebro. Although their output of new music is relatively small, the band has continued to tour, visiting countries all over Europe, Canada, the US, and Japan…sharing stages with the likes of Mötley Crüe, Pretty Maids, LA Guns, Thin Lizzy, Wishbone Ash, Ratt, Dio, Saxon, Axel Rudi Pell, and oh-so many others…and also performing at such renowned festivals as Wacken Open Air and Sweden Rock since the turing of the decade. 2005 saw the release of the Best Of compilation (released through the Svedmetal label), featuring music off all of the band’s previous albums (with a focus on the latter two), with the addition of the two tracks which were previously exclusively available on a couple of singles! The relative success of that album must’ve convinced the band their time was ripe to get a new set of songs together…which is what we get on this, their fifth album! The ten songs show a band which likes to diversify their songs somewhat, occasionally going towards the balladesque (with the beautiful “Only The Best Die Young”, which is an homage to an old friend…brother perhaps), occasionally putting in the somewhat “simpler” song, but for the most part putting in some very interesting tensions in the guitar work…which is written to be played by two guitarists (so I guess they’ll hire an extra gun for live appearances in order to allow for the lead axeman to do his thing). In quite a few of the songs there’s also some keyboard additions, making for a more bombastic whole in those instances (check “Born To Rock” for measure)! Of course, you’ll get your somewhat Sleaze-oriented topics, and there’s even one about getting some vengeance (“Longtime Cumin”), but overall this is mainly party music!. For a listening session of a couple of the album’s songs (3 in total when I last looked), surf to myspace.com/baibang. A nice album by a bunch of guys who’ve been in the business of making their kind of music for quite a while now (obviously the kind of guys who “refuse to grow up”), and have gotten real good at it! 88/100 Tony. |