Eurovision glory - a blessing or a curse? Time alone will tell. What is clear is this: One, it will lead directly to the sale of a truckload of albums for
Lordi, and two, God help us, it'll lead to a million imitators.
That song,
'Hard Rock Hallelujah' is taken from '
The Arockalypse', the band's latest release.
After last year's
'The Monster Show', a rerecorded 'best of' the band's first two albums with added dance beats, I was expecting more of the same. While the material on
'The Arockalypse' is hardly a tangential departure, there are some signs of substance and maturity for the patient listener.
The instantly disposable stuff clogs up the early part of '
The Arockalypse' like grease in a kitchen drain.
'Bring The Balls Back To Rock', '
Girls Gone Wild' and '
The Kids Who Wanna Play With The Dead' are just as generic and predictable as their titles suggest. The constant references to George Romero and his quartet of zombie movies suggest there may be some kind of concept at work here, but apart from the obvious I have to say it escaped me.
To be fair,
Lordi makes no claim for originality or even for heavy metal credibility. His band's cartoon metal is designed for fun, not for artistic achievement.
The masks and makeup underline the joke, suggesting that tongues and cheeks are seldom parted.
But perversely, the punchline snakes its way through the theatrics and histrionics and shows its face later in the album, thanks to a handful of genuine melodic pop metal gems.
Guest guitarist Bruce Kulick contributes a studied, measured axe solo to the appropriately
Kiss like stadium pop of
'It Snows In Hell', and there's no doubt that the unquestionably charismatic '
Hard Rock Hallelujah' has a neat bridge and a winning chorus. The Intro to
'Good To Be Bad' is all Survivor. The chorus though is more a heavy metal
Blue Tears - cute 'n catchy, with no little charm. Dance floor filler '
Supermonsters' ends the album on a suitably rifftastic, anthemic note.Much air punching and headbanging, no doubt.
Catch it while it lasts.
Written by
Brian Tuesday, June 6, 2006
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