Reviews: Robby Krieger And The Soul Savages, Grand, Gotus, Cobrakill (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Robby Krieger And The Soul Savages - Robby Krieger And The Soul Savages (The Players Club)

The debut album from the new band formed by six stringer and founding member of The Doors  Robby Krieger is an instrumental jam from some of the best session/veteran musicians around. Robby Krieger And The Soul Savages is a record that benefits from the experience of all those involved, free form, fluid jazz rock with impressive musicianship from all involved. 

Released on Players Club there's a myriad of styles here but many of them link back to his upbringing in L.A, soul, jazz, blues, psych etc all present and correct, culminating in the album you'd want from a member of Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and one of the greatest guitarists of all time, according to Rolling Stone. A Day In L.A was the track where this band clicked, and it's one of the best cuts here, a bit The Doors, a bit surf, a bit jazz, every instrument getting chance to show off be it the harmonious clean slide guitar of Krieger the fingerstyle bass rhythms of Kevin “Brandino” Brandon, the organs/synths/Fender Rhodes of Ed Roth or the clockwork drumming of Franklin Vanderbilt. 

Between them they have played with James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Ringo Starr, Coolio, Chaka Khan and Lenny Kravitz as well as being nominated for and winning several awards so it's a highly decorated group, playing some classy music. I could spend hours talking about al the artists it pays homage to, all the styles it switches between, the instrumental nuances but it's better to just listen to it. If you like the instrumental jam style, psych rock, jazz rock or funk rock you'll hear a lot to like on this record. 8/10

Grand - Second To None (Frontiers Music Srl)

Grand hit the ground running with their self titled debut in late 2022, so a follow up was always going to be in the offing. That follow up is Second To None another slick slice of AOR from vocalist Mattias Olofsson, Jakob Svensson (guitar/keyboards) and drummer Anton Martinez. The PR talks of traversing uncharted musical landscapes etc. For me though Grand are sticking to the classy style of melodic rock they outlined on their debut with the Scandi-AOR scene that is driven by Eclipse and H.E.A.T fused with the American big hitters such as Foreigner, Toto and Mr Big; vocally Mattias Olofsson sounding like Eric Martin on When We Were Young. 

Olofsson's vocal is brilliant, smooth and soaring, that right amount of high pitch to bring the melodies and interact with Nina Söderquist on Kryptonite. Behind him though Svensson has the rhythms wrapped up, layering keys and synths on top of his guitars, giving some guts to Rock Bottom and rock n rolling for All Or Nothing. Martinez' percussion on Lily and Achilles Heel hitting the Jeff Porcaro sweet spot. On Second To None Grand have made sure that their second album comes from the same place as the debut but with more refinement. If that was sugar, then this is caramel. Look out melodic rock fans you're going to have a new favourite band. 8/10

Gotus - Gotus (Frontiers Music Srl)

A member of Gotthard, Krokus, Unisonic and many others, guitarist Mandy Meyer, teamed up with an ex-member of Krokus, drummer Pat Aeby, in 2019 as Gotus, playing songs written by Meyer for all the bands he’s been a part of but with the pandemic etc they stopped touring and only really came together with their current line up in 2022. Joining Aeby is his ex-Krokus cohort Tony Castell on bass, Alain Guy fills out the guitars of Meyer with keys and behind the mic they have managed to lure Ronnie Romero. 

This self titled debut is full of melodic rock originals but has two covers (technically) as When The Rain Comes and Reason To Live were written by Meyer as a member of Katmandü and Gotthard respectively, but it’s the originals that will appeal to anyone that knows nothing about the members history. Kicking out the organ drenched rocking jams on Take Me To The Mountain, we’re in retro country, Romero getting to show off his Rainbow fronting chops. Yeah ok this got me liking the record already, I’m a sucker for Rainbow/Purple/Whitesnake style rocking so Gotus are already in my good books. 

From here we go into the Coverdale-esque slither of Beware The Fire and then to some balladry on Love Will Find It's Way. All the trademarks of that classic rock era of the late 70's. But there's also modernity, the rock solid foundation of current and former Krokus carrying a bluesy swagger even on ballads such as Without Your Love. Gotus has been a long time coming but it's a project with some big riffs, great vocals and radio friendly rocking. 8/10

Cobrakill - Serpent's Kiss (Frontiers Music Srl)

The second album from Cobra Kill, grabs a bottle of Jack Daniels, some ladies of ill repute and comes to pass out on your sofa like the bastard son of Mötley Crue and Ratt. Too much hairspray, jeans tighter than a Scotsman and more attitude than your teenage daughter, Cobrakill are the living embodiment of the 80's glam/sleaze scene without having to take the piss like Steel Panther. The follow up to their debut album Cobratörsess drummer Toby Ventura taking the producers chair to lend them a sound that's very authentic to the bands they are influenced by. Yeah the production is hissy as if it’s a cassette or a vinyl, the instruments have fuzz and the vocals are slightly echoed. 

Ventura lays down the beat while bassist Crippler Ramirez doubles down with rhythm guitarist Tommy Gun for those biting and strutting riffs, moving between the bouncy pop rock of Ratt one minute (Monstrous) and the blood soaked schlock of W.A.S.P the next on Bazooka while Above The Law get a bit thrashy. With this trio commanding the bottom end Randy White can get flashy with w fret fireworks and Nick Adams can do his best Vince Neil meets Blackie Lawless vocal sneer on tracks such as Torture Me and Hungry Heart. 

But here’s the negative’s any album that has a song called Ride My Rocket makes me cringe a little, the ballad Seventeen is not the best and there’s a Mike & The Mechanics cover, so there’s a lot to like here but they are trying to be of its time, 40 years too late. 6/10