Discovering Finnish hard rock band,
Kilpi, is like finding buried treasure.
They may not be the most photogenic of subjects - they make Lemmy look like Brad Pitt - but their handsome, head turning hard rock would adorn anyone's collection.
Flying in the face of convention, they perform their straight-as-an-arrow heavy rock songs solely in their native tongue. An act of defiance, or simply necessity?
One way or the other, on
'Kilpi IV', you will find that Finnish is such a pithy, expressive language that it perfectly fits the band's riffy, hewn from granite rock songs, where simple combinations of belligerent vocals and cranked up guitars wield an awesome, elemental power.
On the downside, a lack of variety in pace and style can cause your attention to waver at times, but the sharply focused guitarwork and intense rhythmic and vocal performances will get you back with the programme whenever necessary.
'Tuli, Vesi, Ilma Ja Maa' opens the album in a fusillade of detonating rhythms and razoring riffs, but it is the just as heavy, if slightly more immediate and marginally more melodic '
Seireeni' and '
Elaman Vanki' that will capture your imagination.
Legends in their own lifetime, hugely helped by the
Kiss connection,
Angel were already on the downward side of the popularity curve by the time their third album,
'On Earth As It Is In Heaven' (1977) was released.
Unfortunately, despite swimming tentatively into the mainstream, it did little to arrest the band's slide. Cult status beckoned.
New label, Lovember have restored the album to its former glory and have added liner notes from that journalistic
AOR legend himself, Dave Reynolds. Nice package.
Album highlights includes '
She's A Mover', filled with shimmering, hard edged pop and
'Telephone Exchange', the perfect combination of neonlit pop hook and hard rock drive, with both tracks owing a great deal to the band's pomp rock past, at least in terms of structure and melody.
Beyond '
Sinful', this is as good an epitaph as any band could wish for.
Despite the demise of guitarist Pete Wells, influential Oz hard rock band,
Rose Tattoo are still alive and well.
'Blood Brothers' is all the evidence you need.
On this respectfully repackaged reissue from SPV (a DVD of the band's 2006 Wacken gig is presented along with the CD previously released in 2007), vocalist Angry Anderson and guitarist Mick Cocks have written an outstandingly good bunch of songs (with one contribution from the
AC/DC writing team of Vanda & Young).
Combative, melodic, driven by bone hard riffs and rumbling bass lines, it's been recorded live-in-the-studio by the vastly experienced producer, Mark Opitz.
The world of contemporary rock may well be a million miles away from the point at which the Tatts' began, but the band's articulate, hard wired hard rock still strikes as many chords now - and just as aggressively - as it did back then.
Judging by this album, it's clear they remain comfortable inside their own tattooed skin.
Only two among several,
'Slipping Away' and '
Once In A Lifetime' once again demonstrate the band's unerring way with a solidly constructed hard rock song, gilded by a deceptively simple melody and a slowburning hook.
Lyrically though, this album is as good as you'll hear anywhere, anytime.
Anderson's sharply observed, insightful songs positively pulse with humanity, making that emotional connection with the listener that many bands strive for but few achieve.
It's good to know that a great band is still great.
Ratings:Kilpi : 6/10
Angel : 6/10
RTattoo : 7.5/10
Written by
Brian Thursday, October 16, 2008
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