BEST OF THE REST
Other new releases out this month.Overkill
The Wings Of War NUCLEAR BLAST
With new drummer Jason Bittner in place, Overkill prove that their
old-school thrash is still peerless. A cracker, the band blazing with
intensity and humour. 8/10Altitudes And Attitude
Get It Out MEGAFORCE
Frank Bello (Anthrax) and David Ellefson (Megadeth) team up for an
album veering towards the hard rock mainstream, but which is too
inconsistent. There’s potential, though. 6/10The Flesh Eaters
I Used To Be Pretty REDEYE WORLDWIDE
The enigmatic Hollywood punks’ first album in 35 years (including
beefed-up old tracks) is an atmospheric yet strutting cocktail of dark
romance, louche sax lines and bluesy grit. 7/10Mark Morton
Anesthetic SPINEFARM
Lamb Of God guitarist Morton teams up with a selection of prized
rock singers for his debut solo album. Expect crunchy riffage, moody
tunes and melodic but hard-ass heaviness. 7/10Children Of Bodom
Hexed NUCLEAR BLAST
These Finns have for a long time long established an extreme metal
style of their own. But Hexed isn’t a repetition of what’s gone before,
and sounds reasonably fresh. 6/10In Flames
I, The Mask NUCLEAR BLAST
This is probably the Swedish band’s best album since 2006’s Come
Clarity. The songs are memorable, the musicianship is fierce, and
overall this is commanding melodic death metal. 7/10Emerald Sabbath
Ninth Star PLASTIC HEAD
Black Sabbath super-fan assembles cast of less-trumpeted former
members (and some classical players) for tribute record. It doesn’t
all work, but overall this enormous labour of love should sit brilliantly
with devoted Sabbath-ites. 5/10O.R.k.
Ramagehead KSCOPE
Immersive sounds from part King Crimson, part Porcupine Tree
‘supergroup’. By turns brooding, gnarly and soaring, it moves through
angular, Radiohead-esque weight and dulcet (if sometimes drifty)
progressive textures. 6/10Ian Brown
Ripples VIRGIN/EMI
King Monkey contemplates his navel. There are R&B tropes here,
along with spiralling retro loops, a lackadaisical bag-afarian Mikey
Dread cover, and even vicarious gripes about ‘the daily grind’. But
passion? No. 5/10Rat Boy
Internationally Unknown PARLOPHONE
Scum’s sneer-faced Estuary ingenuity gives way to SoCal pop-punk
drawling as Jordan Cardy teams up with Rancid’s Tim Armstrong for
a quaintly dated second set haunted by cliché. 6/10Screamin’ Rebel Angels
Heel Grinder HEY-LO RECORDS
Slap-bass-bothering, rockabilly-hollering Laura Palmer’s NYC-based
Angels unleash their second squall of flame-haired, tats-‘n’-lipstick,
Ooh My Soul rock‘n’roll. The psycho Ivy to Jim Jones’s Lux. 7/10Drenge
Strange Creatures INFECTIOUS
Dark, twisted, twisting, the third from Sheffield’s Drenge spins a mirror-
ball in the charnel house. Lyrical ingenuity seduces grunge authenticity
into pervo-electro territory, and the effect is shattering. 7/10luckily, is also a state-of-the-art
studio) where, for the first time
in their 33-year history, they
lived together while recording.
Their claim that this enhanced
their energy and enjoyment is
supported by the direct, heads-
down avalanche of aggression
on the record. Drummer Mike
Mangini seems intent on proving
that Mike Portnoy isn’t missed,
while James LaBrie sings in one
of those so-clean-it’s-dirty AOR
voices. There are brief pit-stops
for pensiveness on the whirling
Room 137 and the baroque
Barstool Warrior, but the dominant
thread is superior thrash.
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Chris Roberts
Rock Goddess
This Time BITE YOU TO DEATH
Veteran metallers return to the
studio after 30 years away.
One of very few all-female acts to
emerge from NWOBHM, South
London trio Rock Goddess have
had a bumpy ride since reforming
in 2013, with shelved album plans
and abrupt departures. Finally
settled on a stable line-up led by
their founding duo, Jody Turner
on vocals and guitars and her
sister Julie on drums, they now
look and sound like a Lynda
LaPlante fantasy of big-haired,
road-hardened, ballsy ladyrockers
who are taking no shit from
nobody. Sunshine.
‘It’s taken some time/We’re back
in the game...’ Jody growls
knowingly as This Time kicks off,
and instantly the 32-year gap
between albums falls away in
a leather-booted stampede of
vintage analogue squeals, snarls
and stomps. There are a few too
many generic pub-metal
numbers, but Rock Goddess still
touch greatness at times, notably
with the stacked vocal harmonies
of glam-metal anthem Calling To
Space and the majestic power
ballad Drive Me Away, which muses
on the sparks that fly when lust
and romance collide. A welcome,
respectable comeback.
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Stephen Dalton
Jason
Ringenberg
Stand Tall COURAGEOUS CHICKEN
Alt.country pioneer returns
in upbeat mood.
Taking time out
from Jason And
The Scorchers
for his first solo
album in 14
years, Jason Ringenberg sounds
noticeably more laid back than
he did on 2004’s righteous,
Dubya-baiting Empire Builders.
Lookin’ Back Blues is pure bar-
room jam, while Almost Enough
and the Pogue-ish I’m Walking
Home are carefree hoedowns.
And he still has a way with
a pithy lyric, most notably on
God Bless The Ramones (‘they
never made much money, most
folks either hated them or thought
that they were funny’) where he
recalls seeing the legendary
quartet back in the day and
notes the irony that their T-shirts
are now everywhere but the
original quartet are all one-two-
three-four feet under.
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Johnny SharpWhile She Sleeps
So What? SLEEPS BROTHERS
Sheffield noisemakers refuse
to compromise.
It’s taken them a while, but
While She Sleeps are finally –
and rightly – being touted as the
future of all things British and
heavy. They were catapulted to
this point by their 2016 album
You Are We, a rabid punk/metal
crossbreed that nailed the tricky
balance between accessibility
and authenticity, a middle
ground so many bands aim for
but overstep.
Now, So What? sees the band
build on that foundation,
embracing melody more than
ever before, with huge hooks and
rousing choruses the size of
God’s balls thrust forward on I’ve
Seen It All and the electronic-
flecked Inspire. Yet for all its
polish, the album never sounds
too clean, and in particular, the
anthemia on Elephant and The
Guilty Party slides down the hatch
about as easily as razor blades.
While She Sleeps have their
eyes fixed on festival-sized
audiences, and with this next
step forward they’ve delivered
the goods to get them there.
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Dannii LeiversThe Brian
Jonestown
Massacre
The Brian Jonestown
Massacre A RECORDINGS
Dizzying psychedelic highs
are followed by a crashing
comedown.
The late and
much-lamented
Mark E Smith
famously
opined that
even if it was just him with your
granny on bongos, then it would
still be The Fall. Listening to this,
The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s
eighteenth studio album, it’s
difficult to shake off the feelingthat not only has the band’s sole
constant member, Anton
Newcombe, taken this
philosophy to heart, but also that
your granny’s percussion
would’ve hugely improved this
collection of half-arsed jams and
slack-eyed moves.
Make no mistake, Newcombe
has made some wonderful
records over the years, but
sadly this isn’t one of them.
Take, for example, Drained- on which Newcombe croaks
tellingly: ‘You’ve lost all your
hope, and you’ve lost your way’ - and the thoroughly dreary
Cannot Be Saved, which feel like
demos at best, thanks to lazy
chord sequences, slight
melodies and undisciplined
and ill-produced drumming.
The on-form We Never Had
A Chance sums up this
disappointing mess.
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Julian Marszalek
Backyard Babies
Sliver and Gold CENTURY MEDIA
Do they even make radios
any more?
To recap quickly
the story so far:
Sweden’s
Backyard Babies
are the patient
zero of the Scandinavian sleaze-
rock wave. Armed with the 20th
century’s last true guitar hero,
the undeniably true-blue Dregen,
they hit their stride in 1998 with
the immense Total 13, then spent
the next 20 years confounding
their fans with increasingly
puffball albums that leaned more
towards Def Leppard than smack.
So here we are. There are
glimmers here and there of
Grace Of God-era Hellacopters
grandeur on this, all sweeping
melodicism and hairpin-turning,
high-drama choruses,
particularly on the twin singles
Good Morning Midnight and
Shoving Rocks, both state-of-the-
art stadium rockers that should
sound glorious the next time
you’re roaring down the
highway with the top down and
a big-haired model in the
passenger seat.
If we left it at that, everyone
would be happy. The problem is
that if you blink or doze off for
a moment on a particularly
overblown track like Bad Seeds or
A Day Later In My Dollar Shorts
(really?), the whole thing starts
to sound like the Goo Goo Dolls
(or American Hi-fi, if you really
wanna get technical about it).
And nobody signed up for that.
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