Band : Acid Drinkers
Album title : Fishdick Zwei – The Dick Is Rising Again
Label : Mystic Production
Distributor : Mystic Production
Release date : 08/11/2010
Release : CD

Never heard of Acid Drinkers before? Join the club! Nevertheless, this Polish Thrash Metal band's popularity has grown more and more over the years, and that beyond the typical Metal music scene as well.

Founded in late 1986, the band had the opportunity to infect a broad range of Rock/ Metal music lovers by playing supports to such well-known international artists as Deep Purple, Megadeth, Bruce Dickinson, Sepultura, Paradise Lost and Slayer, while being frequent players at Polish Rock/ Metal festivals. And releasing their debut album in 1990 (through Music For Nations, no less!), Fish Dick Zwei marks the band's 15th full-length release (one of which admittedly a live recording). On 3 occasions (1998, 2000 and 2004), AD won the Polish equivalent of a Grammy, and in 1998 and 2008 they also won Zloty Baczek awards in the category “Best Group”. On top, readers of Polish Tylko Rock magazine voted the band into the Top 5 of best '90s bands. In late 2008, and the day after finishing a 7 ½ week tour, the band was struck with tragedy, when their rhythm guitarist and backing singer Aleksander “Olekk” Mendyk (a former None member, who'd joined in time to contribute largely to the band's 2008 album Verses Of Steel) was found dead in his bed due to circulatory failure. The remaining guys (founder and singer/ bassist Tomek “Titus” Pukacki, and old-timers Darek “Popcorn” Popowicz on lead guitar and Maciek “Slimak” Starosta on drums) nevertheless decided to continue, playing a special concert (as a trio) on December 13 to commemorate their departed friend. After enlisting good friend Wocjiech “Jankiel” Moryto (formerly a backline technician for the band) into the band, AD threw themselves upon a busy touring schedule, which was interrupted during the first half of 2010 to record the songs on Fishdick Zwei, a follow-up to 1994's Fishdick, on which the band brought covers of songs by other artists!

And on Fishdick Zwei those songs come from a very wide variety of artists and genres. In order of appearance on the album, you get adrenalized versions of Johnny Cash's “Ring Of Fire”, Percy Mayfield's “Hit The Road Jack” (became famous when Ray Charles recorded his 1961 version, it was later also covered by the likes of The Animals, Suzi Quatro, John Mellencamp, The Residents, and many more), Iron Maiden's “Losfer Words Big 'Orra”, B52's' “Love Shack” (with a female singer whom sound very much like the real thing), Frank Sinatra's “New York, New York”, Led Zeppelin's “Bring It On Home”, and Donna Summer's “Hot Stuff”. After which the band takes a step back for a surprisingly calm version (nevertheless with some guitar additions in the choruses of the second part of the song) of Joe Dassin's “Et Si Tu N'Existais Pas”...with the original French lyrics (and including the moderate participation of a female singer, probably the same as before). Back to more energetic songs with The Rolling Stones' “2000 Man” (covered by Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley on his 1979 Dynasty album), Thin Lizzy's “Bad Reputation” (already a very heavy song to begin with, especially in Lizzy's own live version on their 2000 One Night Only album). A second weird moment on the album comes with the cover of Slayer's “Seasons In The Abyss”, which starts very much like the original, but is turned into a mocking Country style diddy very soon after the intro. So, back to adrenalizing Red Hot Chili Peppers' “Blood Sugar Sex Magic” (from RHCP' better days, before they turned their albums into lame ballad compilations), playing a very “comical” version of Metallica's “Nothing Else Matters”, including the use of accordion, viola, mandolin, hobo(?) and silly vocal stylings in the calmer passages. Follows a very short version of Kiss' “Detroit Rock City” (actually only the opening guitars plus the first sentence of the song), and another female vocal participation comes for the Keith Richards song “Make No Mistake” (off Keith's 1998 solo debut Talk Is Cheap, the song was featured on the soundtrack of the hit television series The Sopranos). The album is closed with the atmospheric instrumental diddy “Fluff”, originally by Black Sabbath.

Well, a nice collection of cover songs indeed, in fact a véry nice collection...in fact it would be unfair to give this a rating, so I'm not gonna (but in the meantime I'm adding the album to my year-lists anyway). To hear some material off this album, I'm afraid that at least at the momet you'll have to make due with what the trusted online sales websites provide as samples. For a couple of full-length songs off the band's “regular” albums, check myspace.com/aciddrinkers.

Tony.