Languishing in some record company vault (do they all have vaults?) for the last 15 years, Johnny Crash's second and hitherto unreleased album finally blinks and walks out into the light. Respect to those enthusiastic afficionados at Oz's SunCity Records.
This isn't one of those lost-and-now-found recordings that makes you realise some melodic rock albums should have a sell by date after all.
No, this album confounds the cinical fan by being bloody marvellous.
'Unfinished Business' is just brimming over with driving hard rock, populated by drizabone riffs and caustic vocals, drawing blood with sharp metaphors and cutting axework. It's simultaneously all their own work and a suitably virile salute to the genre's pioneers, AC/DC,
Rose Tattoo and The Angels.
With ex
Tokyo Blade vocalist Vicki James Wright in its ranks, the band was always going to attract attention. The patently obvious songwriting chemistry created with guitarist Christopher Stewart provided the vehicles for some fine studio performances.
With a strong emphasis on melody, and the occasional detour into The Sweet's campy, glitzy rock'n'roll (
Ditch The Bitch) and Cinderella's classic crossover pop metal
(Summer Daze), there was enough going on, you would have thought, to ensure a pumped up publicity campaign from the label, and subsequent fame and inevitable fortune.
Wrong.
In 1992, the well documented seismic shift in popular rock immediately led to numerous bands being unceremoniously dumped by their labels.
And thus was the fate of Johnny Crash. The second album got shelved. Until now.
'
Monkey See Monkey Do' and
'Mama Don't Care' marry Sunset Strip sleaze with stripped down Oz hard rock. Full of ballsy attitude and staggeringly confident delivery.
'When It Gets Hard' will remind you of Frankie Miller when he was great.
'Living Above The Law' and
'Renegade' pivot on dry, bonehard riffs - pared back hard rock that digs deep into a groove, gaining an unstoppable momentum on the way.
No question, this album is a real find. Buy it now.
Written by
Brian Monday, May 19, 2008
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