Crooked Teeth - House vs Hurricane

Crooked Teeth

House vs Hurricane

Rating 5/10

                Changing singers can be a dangerous step for a band to take. Take Iron Maiden, replacing Paul Di’anno with the almighty Bruce Dickinson propelled the band to new heights and established them as one of the biggest heavy metal bands of all time. However, when Van Halen replaced Sammy Hagar with Extreme’s Gary Cherone the band entered a period of both critical and commercial failure resulting in the band going into hiatus following the release of Van Halen III. With Aussie Hardcore mob House vs Hurricane on the other hand recruiting new singer Christopher “Chris 2” Shaw has proven to be a mixed bag.

            Lets start with the positives, the harsh shouted vocals make an amicable accompaniment to the meat and potatoes hardcore backing, the music doesn’t really do anything to stand out but the chugging riffs and breakdowns would please any hardcore fan. The beat & breakdowns pack the type of punch you would expect from a band with a song entitled “Get Wrecked”, which is performed and sounds exactly the way you would expect it to. As far as simplistic hardcore goes the music is more than acceptable and would serve as an ideal support band to a scene group such as Emmure or Parkway Drive.

            Sadly the album tries its hand at clean melodic passages and chorus’s. This is where the album falls on its arse. The clean vocals miss the mark by quite a distance, coming across not catchy and anthemic like Bury Tomorrow but whiny and annoying, like as if a 5 year old wont leave you alone on a long haul flight. The vocal lines fail to the standard and quality if their peers especially Architects who for my money are everything that House vs Hurricane strive to become.

                The album could have been vastly improved by cutting out the unnecessary clean vocals, the band suit being a shout along hardcore band with anthemic hooks such as While She Sleeps. Without developing their sound I fear they may fall by the way side and become lost amongst their peers. However if they adapt to being a straight up hardcore outfit hey could have a strong presence within the hardcore scene.

For fans of:- Emmure, Last Witness, Architects

A Different Kind of Truth - Van Halen

A Different kind of truth

Van Halen

Interscope

Rating: - 8/10

Veteran Rock n roll legends return… with spectacular results

“I told you I was coming back” croons David Lee Roth on the track Blood and Fire, from this alone you should have grasped that Diamond Dave has returned and is performing a star jump for the first time in over 28 years.  As proven with recent classic rock bands returning and making albums, the results are mixed. They can be really good like Sonic Boom by Kiss or they can be the biggest pile of horse crap the world has ever seen like Chinese Democracy by Guns n Roses. I am incredibly pleased to say that the Van Halen album is as good and maybe on par with Sonic Boom.

After the commercial gluttony of the Van Hager era (5150’s a good album but there is little more than a few miscellaneous tracks) and the tragic and completely terrible Gary Cherone era which is best left unspoken of. After a hugely successful tour in which they managed to make as much money as Chelsea have wasted on players by just touring America (im not complaining but they’ve not been to the UK since 1995, so I believe were owed a show… lets say Sonisphere).

The album had to be great in order to live up to the hype and expectations following the hugely successful tour, which thankfully it is. The 80’s commercial sheen has been replaced with a gritty but well produced sound and the tacky keyboards have been replaced by a more stripped down sound similar to the sound of the bands 1978 debut. DLR proves he has not lost it; his bizarre lyrics which are delivered with a huge amount of character and charisma. Songs like Stay frosty (an ode to Ice cream man from the debut album) is both eccentric and   bizarre whilst being a incredibly well written song, However it does sound like the Hula Hula song from South Park. The trio of Van Halens Eddie, Alex and Eddie’s son Wolfgang who replaces Michael Antony on Bass all shine on this album. Alex’s thundering rhythms combine effortlessly with Wolfgang’s groove bass lines, for such a young man he proves he can play and easily fills the shoes of Michael Antony. However the highlight of the album is Eddie’s solo’s and riffs, many people doubted after his recent alcohol problems might have hampered his guitar playing ability. They couldn’t have been more wrong, Eddie sounds more inspired and energetic than he has since the mid 1980’s, showing every guitarist in the world why he is and will always be one of the greatest guitarists in the world. On tracks such as China Town and The Trouble with Never Eddie’s souring solo’s show off  how good he still is, without sounding forced or ever showing off.

Overall this album is a solid return from the band, by returning to their roots they have managed to remind the world why the band are one of the biggest bands in the world. Now please can we have some UK shows please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Influenced by Kiss, Led Zeppelin, The Jimmy Hendrix experience

Also try: - Sonic Boom – Kiss

Runnin wild – Airbourne

Dr Feelgood – Motley Crue