Graceful Degradation

Appearing from Italy with very heavy intentions, Lucky Bastardz have clearly been influenced by Motorhead - there's even a hint of Ace of Spades in the underlying rhythm of opener Devil Cum, although the tempo isn't as fast paced.

The trouble is there's a major mismatch in this band. Vocalist Geppo is a screamcore type, even on At What Time - Does My Breath Stop, the closest they get to a ballad. He can't resist breaking into it in the chorus. By contrast, Paco's guitars are a less aggressive, more classic style, flying through some cracking solos such as on Bite Your Heart. In spite of the impression given at the very start of the album, they aren't really in the Motorhead mould, although I suspect Geppo wants the music to be more in that direction. The not-at-all-cliched (honest) track Rotten Pussy is, I suspect, a sop to him. More drum led, although Paco gets in another soaring solo, it's still maybe not as heavy as Geppo would like it to be. And the very light-hearted and upbeat I'm A Rocker - Don't Blame Me could have been really appealing but sounds all kinds of wrong for Geppo's vocal style.

I think this could have been a great album. Evan LA on bass, Mark on drums, and Paco on guitar really have something - they're an excellent combination. They could just do with a different singer.

Okay, so it's still November. However, since I received my first Christmas card yesterday (seriously) and the shops are already inflicting the usual selection of about six Christmas songs in rotation on us, it's time for a look at that bane of the holiday season - the novelty Christmas album.

This one comes from Santas Misfits, a band of largely session musicians who got together to have a bit of fun. And it is fun. Listening to it today it did bring a smile to my face.

Opening with a cover of The Kinks' Father Christmas it instantly strikes the right mickey-taking note, the song featuring a group of poor children threatening to beat up a store Father Christmas unless he gives them money instead of toys. One could think of it as biting social commentary on the commercialisation and excessive expenditure of many for Christmas when so many more people are without jobs or a decent income, but in this context it's still a bit of a laugh.

Jingle Bell Rock has been metallicized and is sounding rather more rocking than the twee original. The excessively dull and tedious Little Drummer Boy which I seem to hear far too much has been rendered more listenable, especially by making use of two drummers. Run Run Rudolph is fabulously fifties, very Chuck Berry (no surprise there really), and the only track on the album which seems to be have been played more or less straight is I Believe In Father Christmas, which was actually a disappointment because I was really hoping for a distortion guitar or something to kick in part way through.

If Christmas music annoys you as much as it does me, this at least will give make it more bearable. If only I could get my local supermarket to play something like this instead of the ordinary versions I might not descend into the foul mood the Christmas soundtrack usually inspires. It's a bit of a giggle. Treat it as such and you should enjoy it.

Friday was a bit frantic - I got home from work and just had enough time to change and throw some food in the general direction of the cat before heading north on the M5 for Dudley to see WASP. As it turned out, I could have taken my time at home since for some reason, as yet unexplained, support act The Glitterati failed to appear and WASP didn't hit the stage until 9pm. On the other hand, JB's was rammed and I hadn't planned well enough in advance to buy a ticket so when I saw the line already stretching round the corner and up the road before the doors opened I did have a momentary worry.

The UK loves WASP, it seems. Unsurprising, since once again they are easily topping my list of best gigs I've been to this year. It was the second time I had seen them live, the first being The Crimson Idol 15th Anniversary Tour back in 2007 when I went out of curiosity about a band I hadn't previously paid much attention to. Let's face it, their excessively blood-soaked image back in the day did make them seem something of a joke band, and since Animal (Fuck Like A Beast) was their most famous track I hadn't been inclined to make the effort to find out more about them. That night I came away a convert. Last night just reinforced that.

As a live band they are amazing. The sheer energy put into their performance is incredible, although these days being down the front means you're in danger of being hit by flying drops of sweat from the stage rather than lumps of raw meat. Doug Blair is stunningly good on guitar, very much a showman but damn, the man can play! Watching Mike Duda on bass is just as exhilarating, and Mike Dupke pounding away in the back on his pretty large kit really puts his all into it.

Blackie Lawless remains a frontman to envy in the sheer adoration he seemed to inspire in the crowd, but he's not a selfish man on stage. Quite frequently he takes a step back to allow Blair to take centre stage for one of his fantastic solos. He hasn't exactly shed the old image though - last night, along with the LA Raiders shirt, knee boots and black leggings he had semi-circular saw blades attached to his wrist bands.

We had a few tracks from the new album Babylon - Crazy and Babylon's Burning, the chorus of which the audience enthusiastically joined in (even me, although thanks to the Royal Mail I still hadn't got my hands on the album at that point). But it's always the classic tracks that the fans want to hear, and with the exception of Animal which Blackie has vowed never to perform again, that's what we got. LOVE Machine, Wild Child, I Wanna Be Somebody and of course Chainsaw Charlie all got massive reactions, as did Take Me Up from Dominator. The encore was concluded with Blind In Texas and they were off the stage and out the door, leaving a hot, sweaty, and very, very happy audience behind them.

WASP to an extent will always have to battle the ridiculousness of the image that originally got them noticed, and unless you're a Metal Sludge regular you would be surprised at the crap slung in Blackie's direction for saying he's now a Christian. But as a band, particularly a live act, if you're prepared to look beyond those things you will find something amazing. If you've never seen them live, make sure you do. You'll have a hell of a night.

One of these days I've really got to visit Stockholm and check out the live music scene there. With so many first rate bands coming out of Sweden I can't see how I could fail to have a good time. And keeping an eye on what Chris Laney is producing is a pretty good idea too.

Dynazty are another band to add to the list of Swedish talent, with their hard rocking debut Bring The Thunder. I defy anyone to listen to the title track and opener without being instantly hooked by their energy, enthusiasm, and above all, talent. Nils Molin has one hell of a set of pipes on him, reminiscent of Sebastian Bach in many ways. Actually, there's more than a hint of Skid Row about these guys (check out Monkey Wants, Monkey Needs in particular), who like so many others from their homeland have gone down the 80s route, only in a slightly different direction. They're that little bit heavier, not so much sleaze, focussed more on the rock - check out The Devil's Shake for some heavy magnificence.

Lights Out (In Candyland) is postively anthemic. Rob Love and John Berg make an excellent pairing on guitars, the backing vocal harmonies are really strong, it's a big song with a real kick to it. And immediately afterwards you'll get your heart ripped out with the passion of Molin's vocals in the ballad Far Away.

Then you've got Joey Fox and George Egg doing a great job on bass and drums respectively. Take Me Down in particular has a strong bass line with Fox largely leading the rhythm here. Egg doesn't put a stick out of place either anywhere on the album.

Sheer heavy rock heaven. Do yourselves a favour and check these guys out.

Have you ever been really disappointed by an album? That's how I felt about the self-titled debut of Italian rockers SEX Department. I should have loved it - I'd read reviews, both on music sites and from people on forums, hailing this return to the glory days of the Sunset Strip so I bought it. Dear God, it was bad! And worse was to come. I was then sent a copy to review for Black Velvet magazine, so not only did I have two copies, I had to listen to it again. Which meant that when TSM Promotions sent me Rock 'N' Roll Suicide to review my heart sank. I couldn't even bring myself to listen to it until last night, and you know what?

It doesn't suck.

Damning with faint praise, right? But that's not entirely fair. I'd actually go as far as to say it's quite a reasonable listen, with the exception of the final track SEX Department (Remix) which is right there in the 'What were they thinking?' category along with Bang Tango's Sheep on drugs remix of Motley Crue's Starry Eyes.

Production is hugely better than the debut, and the song-writing has improved as well. There still is no real originality to it, but the nostalgia factor for 80s glam/sleaze is high. It's entirely Kelly Mendess' show again, with him providing both lead and backing vocals, guitars, bass, drums and keyboard which does indicate a good amount of talent even if it does seem a bit self-indulgent. His nasal vocals are still slightly on the annoying side of Taime Downe but again I would say they are better than on the previous album. Plus L'italiano, sung in Italian, is actually a fairly lovely ballad and since he drops the nasal tone for that one it's possibly the best performance on the CD.

If you liked SEX Department you will love this one; if you didn't, you might want to check it out on myspace and see if you like Rock N Roll Suicide better. I can't see Mendess' work ever being high on my list of 'must listen' artists, but if the improvements between the debut and this follow up are anything to go by it might just be that any third album will make it onto my CD player a bit quicker than this one did.

Sombre and strangely magnificent, the instrumental Prelude leads one to assume that this self-titled debut from Canada's Kootznetz is heading into symphonic metal territory, with the solo piano, the underlying synth strings, and a particularly stunning display of shredding. In actual fact, it's pretty straightforward, no-nonsense metal of the classic kind - bit of thrash, screaming guitars, pounding drums, and growling vocals.

Tribal Dance follows directly on from Prelude, carrying on the main theme but losing the symphonic splendour. Got to give Eddie Riumin props on the drums though, he's pretty damn good. It's his fingers on the keyboards throughout as well, really adding something more to the depth of the tracks such as on Circles which he gives a more ethereal air than you would expect. Really, the keyboards are a great way of rounding it all out without being over the top about it, and if they wanted to go down the symphonic route in future it really wouldn't be a stretch.

Marco Restagno provides an equally strong performance on the bass, while Kim Izmaylov and Andrian Sevastyanov really pull out all the stops on the guitars for some really masterly performances. It's always easy to see the guitars as the stars, God knows this girl loves a good solo, but really on this album you've got to pay special attention to the drums - Riumin totally nails it.

Sad to say, the weakness is in the vocals. Izmaylov can sing, no question of that. He's just lacking the power to really carry the tracks. At least he doesn't make the mistake of screaming to compensate. I'm not even looking for a Bruce Dickinson clone here, just a bit more oomph. Although I must say Izmaylov's style works very well on the fabulous Russian language Spirit of the Highway, a slower paced, not-quite-ballad which still runs with the killer guitars and driving drum beat.

What's particularly impressive about this debut album is how young these guys are. Kooznetz (Russian for 'blacksmith' by the way) are still in their late teens, thee of them have been together since 2005 with Restagno joining in 2007, and the level of talent here is simply awesome. There's real quality here, and while I wouldn't point to any particular track and say that it's a world-beating classic the song-writing is pretty solid too.

So there you have it: immense talent, huge potential, and bloody good debut under their belts. Keep an eye out for these guys, they could really go somewhere.

Ready for another taste of Scandinavian sleaze? This time we're heading for Denmark and the third album from Star*Rats, and their first on Swedmetal. It's raw-edged (although given a bit of a polish by Chris Laney's production) and a down-n-dirty, don't-give-a-shit attitude thrown in, with some awesome guitar work thrown in - right from track one.

Who Cares is a superb opener that really sets out their stall and let's you know what you're in for. Sit back and enjoy the ride, although I defy you to sit still and I foresee air guitars a-plenty, if you think you can keep up with Post.

Sometimes there's an almost Velvet Revolver kind of sound, although Magnus on I Could Die Here would frankly blow Scott Weiland off the stage as he belts out the lyrics. He has a gravelly sort of voice, passion and power and a genuine punk attitude.

It's not just the sleaze label that sits well with Star*Rats - metal is very much the name of the game as well. I'm loving the heavier guitars and the bass lines that come through, especially on Fakin' An Inside where it seems that Post is conducting a guitar duel with himself. Kraus on bass and Braun on drums are very far from sinking into the background and help drive the pace as well as giving the band the heavier edge.

Get Nasty is maximum sleaze attitude though, and while some of the vocal effects can be a bit irritating (I'm not a huge fan of the megaphone type sound) it's an infectious beast.

Throw in appearances from Celina Rae on the (very slightly) countrified Land's End and Zodiac Mindwarp's Cobalt Stargazer on Boozehound and what you've got here is a brilliant showcase of Star*Rats' talent, a rollicking slab of genuine hard ass rock 'n' roll. And yet more evidence that Swedmetal Records know how to pick great bands.

I don't know what they put in the water in Sweden, but for such a small population they have a high proportion of quality bands. Naughty Boys are a prime example - largely on the melodic side but managing to squeeze in a sleazy edge along with some bluesy vibes, their second album Destiny Calls is a solid, addictive, and hard rocking ride.

Title track and album opener Destiny Calls is gritty, dirty, and instantly appealing. I would never have thought of pianos adding to the heaviness of the sound rather than lightening it, but that's exactly what Valentin manages here. Actually, forget guitar duels for a bit, the duels between piano and Hasse's guitars throughout the album give Naughty Boys a pretty much unique sound. Mellow, melodic and wistful for the opening of ballad Eternity, the piano is later challenged by a restrained guitar solo, while Don't Turn Around makes a real feature of the two.

Ludde's drums are pretty hot too, well-judged on both the higher octane and the slower tracks and always making their presence felt without being overpowering. He's complimented by some solid bass work, largely hidden in the mix but giving the heavier edge to the likes of Time. And it's all rounded off by the vocals of Micke. Seductive at times, gravelly at others, he makes for a great lead.

Stand out track? Well, I think for me it's going to be Endless Pain, heavier in style, solid hooks, and kind of brooding at times. But I couldn't name a bad track on this album, it's pretty strong from start to finish. Definitely worth a listen or ten.