Monday, April 21, 2014

Sebastian BACH: "Give Em Hell"

Rating: RRR
Label: Frontiers 2014
Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom

Correction. Give 'Em Hell ... as well as the worst artwork cover of the year in order to scare off any potential new buyer of your latest CD? Black Sabbath's Born Again as the adult or merely your creepy necrophilia (necrophile, no?) hanging around at the local graveyard? Nah. It's merely Birk striking the Seb Bach rock star pose and what ever makes him happy. The latter remark(s) has absolutely nothing do with the music though. Bang out of order? Never judge a book by its extremely daft cover, etc, etc.

Just when you thought it was safe to travel to America without hearing the sound of those (dated) down tuned guitars and not to mention the sight of those Nu-Metal freaks, Bach is back to hit you over the head with the sound of 1999. Party like there's no tomorrow and to the end of civilization? It's hardly modern or contemporary rock any longer since we've heard this sort of albums for the past 15-20 years or more. On the other hand. It's certainly not a poor effort or the crap album by the former Skid Row vocalist. Far from it actually. The more you spin, 'Give 'Em Hell', the hotter and better it gets (up to a certain point of course).

Pretty much all the songs were co-written by Bach and famed producer Bob Marlette. Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens wrote however "Push Away" and the track feature the weirdest vocal performance ever by Bach. Could someone please tell me what those borderline flat notes are all about? One thing's for sure, dogs are howling and running away in the opposite direction. The opening four tracks are good fun though and there's several of neat moments to be found within these walls of horror and terror. The vocals are constantly in-your-face and it's perhaps just too much in the long run. In fact, the April Wine cover, "Rock N Roll Is a Vicious Game", like a sweet cool breeze on a hot summer day and exactly what the doctor ordered. Nice but no cigar...

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