It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from Nick Oliveri. It’s been a longer while since he was kicked out of Queens Of The Stone Age (taking their edge with him), and a good 8 years of a while since he put anything out under the Mondo moniker, so expectations may be high … I don’t think his followers will be disappointed. If other acts had put out an album that whilst keeping one foot firmly in the American punk camp, allowed the other to take a circular stomp in and out of the hardcore, stoner and speed genres, I would be moaning that they can’t make their minds up what they were about.
But this is Oliveri giving all his fans something they like from every era of his career, whilst still sounding fresh and innovative. And it works. Even when he slows the pace down, such as in the middle of the superb single Fuck It or Option 4, the controlled aggression and energy still boils and seethes angrily. It’s easy to be noisy and angry, it’s much harder to stay controlled, tight and focussed whilst retaining the essential dangerous looseness that makes any punk influenced band really tick, but Oliveri manages it here. A light touch on the production helps, and this is an album that just flies by leaving you wanting more. 7/10
Syteria: Reflection (Syteria Records/Cargo Distribution) [Paul Hutchings]
Their debut release Rant O Bot in 2017 did nothing for me whatsoever. 35 minutes of routine hard rock tracks which were at best unmemorable. Whilst Reflection isn’t going to threaten my top 300 this year, it’s initially an improvement on the debut. The band is tighter, and overall, it’s a better listen. 12 tracks compressed into another 35 minutes, but with a style which is neither classic rock or the pop-punk fuzz they claim. Use of four-part harmonies and some decent underlying melody are signatures of the band’s sound, with Girlschool guitarist Jax Chambers in solid form, her playing fluid. In fact, the band are all much improved, from the drumming of Pablo Calvo anchoring the tracks to the soaring vocals of sister Julia. The problem is that the songs are just not that good, throwaway and repetitive in formula and delivery. Plastic Fantastic is just one example, a godawful three-minutes of your life lost forever. Much like Girlschool, Syteria appear to have one structure and follow it slavishly. If you want something to put on whilst doing the ironing, maybe this’ll be okay. Or probably not. 5/10
Starmen: Welcome To My World (Black Lodge) [Matt Bladen]
Cast your mind back to 1987 the self proclaimed "Greatest Band In The World" Kiss have removed their makeup and released a number of albums, the most maligned though is Crazy Nights, boasting heavy use of synthesizers and a liberal dose of AOR songwriting, it remains divisive to this day. So imagine if you will that after this album Paul Stanley and Bruce Kulick left the band and formed their own using variations of the Starchild/Spaceman paint but retaining the sound of Crazy Nights. This is what Starmen sound like, the Swedish rock band have really honed in on that 80's Kiss sound. They are all former members of Cleopatra, Poodles, Friends and Stolen Mondays as well as a Kiss tribute band and they have taken this experience to a new project where they have hard rocking songs imbued by AOR taking elements of Def Leppard, Van Hagar along with a few of the Scandi glam bands.
Visually they are all colour coded Purple, Red, Silver & Gold using pseudonyms and dolling themselves in face paint like their New York influencers. So to the album, well the songs are catchier than coronavirus even on tracks like Mayday that deal with more serious issues (climate change) will have you humming them for days. They are all packed with guitar solos and sung by a vocalist who is dead ringer for Mr Stanley, meaning that if you are a fan of Kiss then you will get a lot out of this record. I like Kiss but I hate the Lick It Up - Crazy Nights period however that night have been because it felt like Kiss selling out (can they really sell out anymore?) Starmen however show that it would have been better to form another band playing this music. Catchy, slick AOR based rock. Welcome one and all. 7/10
Hounds are a US Metal/Power outfit who have been around since 2016, and this is their debut album. Apparently, they started life as a Savatage tribute band before deciding to take things further, and you can definitely hear the influence of that erstwhile act, but they have their own distinct sound. I can’t really tell you much more about them, as like a number of debut acts I have reviewed recently, their internet presence is non-existent. Seriously guys, you need to fix this to have a hope these days. The album starts well enough with instrumental opener Madness And Rage, before launching into the title track. It’s fast, it’s pacy, it’s very energetic, but it’s also incredibly rough around the edges, particularly with the vocals, which sound like they have come from a live feed with only a bit of reverb.
It evokes a very early Iron Maiden feel (plus added mid-70’s rock keyboards), completely with sandpaper vocals, but I suspect this has more to do with the mechanics of how the album was recorded than the abilities of the singer, as this feels like one-take studio work than a laboured and polished recording process. But hey, it’s an expensive game and you have to start somewhere. I have to say, first listen out, it did not grab me, but I hate to write something off casually, and on second listen, I’m finding myself enjoying them much more, and I can see them working well as a live act, as the songs work well structurally and instrumentally. However, they are going to need to seriously work on the production values to move up the scales for me, as although it’s nice to hear the 70’s Classic Rock influence on the instrumentals, there is a world of difference between emulating 70’s styles, and using 70’s equipment, and production values from this century would have worked have definitely worked better. Keep going chaps. 5/10.
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