Tag: Rock Music

Steel Panther – ‘On The Prowl’ Album Review

If you love Steel Panther then this is everything you want from a new SP album. If you are a naysayer then there’s nothing here for you whatsoever, and I don’t think the guys give a flying fuck either way.

Amongst the rock fraternity, no one divides the rock fans more than Steel Panther. Oh, and Nickleback. Although one website who clearly know fuck all about rock and metal have named Sabbaths Heaven and Hell as an example.

There are some people out there who think that Steel Panther are a parody band and shouldn’t exist. These people are WRONG! The other half, like me, think that Steel Panther are coming up with some of the best riffs and songs this side of Tony Iommi’s moustache. Dont get me wrong, these guys can do comedy, and take it to another level, but my learned friend, I would also like to submit Exhibit A (Tomorrow Night), Exhibit B (Gloryhole), Exhibit C (Gold Digging Whore) and my latest Exhibit, Exhibit D, the new (Friends With Benefits) as songs that are just as good, if not better than a lot of glam/sleaze/hair metal bands produced in the heyday of the 80s and early 90s.  Parody my arse!

I wasn’t overly enamoured with the last two albums ‘Heavy Metal Rules’, and ‘Lower The Bar’. Thankfully the guys have used lockdown as the perfect opportunity to get their act in order and snorted their weight in nose candy and have come back in glorious style with ‘On The Prowl’. Apparently they all worked from home, and it has paid dividends. 

The nucleus is still there – Michael Starr, Stix Zadinia, and Satchel. If you have been living in a case for the last few years, Lexxi has gone, and after a porno version of American Idol and a few temporary solutions, the guys announced Spyder into the fold in September 2022

In todays cancel culture where you tread on eggshells on what you can say without offending anyone, Steel Panther come right out of the blocks and set their stall with ‘Never Too Late (To Get Some Pussy Tonight). In an uncertain World its good to know that some things stay the same. ‘Friends With Benefits’ is the first cut above track. It has LAs Sunset Strip threaded through it like a stick of rock with Satchel delving deep into his bag of 80s riffs. They go mushy with the social media ballad ‘On Your Instagram’, ‘why can’t you look like you do on your Instagram’ telling you everything you need to know in a simple rhyme about todays state of affairs. ‘1987’ is another stand out track with Starr proclaiming ‘Coverdale banging Tawny Kitaen and the World just felt alright’, and ‘the music scene will never be the same, but I didn’t realise that things would get this lame’. Its one of the best songs they have ever written. Thankfully we have Steel Panther on a one man (band) mission to rectify all that was great about the 80s and then some.

If you think that the song titles are a bit ‘normal’, they revert to type (Yay!) with Dweezil Zappa sining up to shred on ‘Is My D**k Enough’, and the wonderfully titled ‘Magical Vagina’, I’d like to know what a magical vagina does? Card tricks? Levitation? Pull a tiger out? 

’Pornstar’ is a song that only Steel Panther could write, AND get away with. ‘If Harvey Weinstein was still free he wouldn’t care if you resisted’. Oof! ‘Aint For Dead’ is a biographical song about getting old and lamenting about times past, but they still have a part to play, and party.

Photo Credit – David Jackson

‘On The Prowl’ is an album that gets Steel Panther back on track after the last couple of ‘Panther by Numbers’ albums. Theres nowt wrong with music by numbers, but its back on a par with early Steel Panther music when they were on fire (and I’m not talking about Michael Starrs chlamydia!!)

If you love Steel Panther then this is everything you want from a new SP album. If you are a naysayer then there’s nothing here for you whatsoever, and I don’t think the guys give a flying fuck either way. In an uncertain world, its good that some things never change. All hail Steel Panther.

7/10

Tracklisting – 

Never Too Late (To Get Some Pussy Tonight)

Friends With Benefits

On Your Instagram

Put My Money Where Your Mouth Is

1987

Teleporter

Is My Dick Enough (Featuring Dweezil Zappa)

Magical Vagina

All That And More

One Pump Chump

Pornstar

Ain’t Dead Yet

Sleeping On The Rollaway

Steel Panther –

Michael Starr – Vocals

Satchel – Guitar

Stix Zadinia – Drums

Spyder – Bass

Kira Mac – ‘Chaos Is Calling’ Album Review

What Kira Mac have delivered is extraordinary. It is ten songs of pure quality, that after one listen will make you ride that rollercoaster and pay to take the ride again and again. Its not a perfect 10, but it is 35 minutes of absolute enjoyment.

Every now and again YouTube throws me a bone to a band I’ve not encountered before. OK, to give them credit, it does it quite often, but I have a short attention span. I’m not a kid where it has to grab me by the bollox in the first 10 seconds, but I’ll give it a listen at least until I get to a chorus.

I can’t tell you what I was listening to in the first place, but Kira Mac appeared and it was an occasion whereby I my bollox were well and truly grabbed (so to speak). I’ll tell you why shortly.

Anywho, Kira Mac are making little gains that seem to be gathering momentum.

  • Steelhouse created a spot for them
  • BBC Radio 2 play
  • Rock n Blues appearance
  • 17k organic vires on YouTube in 6 months
  • 25k streams on Spotify in 6 month
  • Playlist on Planet Rock for all 4 singles

I am 100% certain that all of this achievement will be well and truly eclipsed 6, or 12 months from today. I am that convinced, I have put a reminder in my calendar to check out the stats!!

Kira Mac are mainly based in and around the North of the UK. Vocalist and reason for the band name Kira Mack along with guitarist Alex Novakovic and bassist Bret Barnes all hailing from Manchester. Joe Worrall (guitar) is from Hull, and new drummer (and doesn’t appear on the album Max Rhead is from Newport. 

Firstly Kira Mac is an unsigned band. This can be for a couple of reasons. Is it because labels won’t entertain anyone unless they have one million streams on Spotify, or is it because it is feasibly possible that an unsigned band can be profitable without the support of a label of any size. If one of my favourite bands (Dirty Honey) can do it, so can Kira Mac.

Right from the off you can tell that Kira Mac have been plying their trade for some time. I really have a soft spot for female vocalists – Leigh Matty, Pat Benatar, Ann Wilson, and the one I want to make particular reference to is one Dorothy Martin. ‘One Way Ticket’ is Dorothy. I just wish everyone knew about Dorothy as they are bloody brilliant. So to compare Kira to Dorothy is very high praise indeed. Searing guitars? Check. Sumptuous chorus. Check. Instantly singable. Check. What a start! ‘Hit Me Again’ is in similar vein, and ‘Chaos Is Calling’ has a bone crunching riff that heavier bands whose band logos I can never read would crawl across broken glass for. It still has melody in spades. 

‘Back For More’ (not that one) is a song that’s bluesier and still pushes the right buttons. You would swear that these guys are American. ‘Mississippi Swinging’ is without doubt one of the best songs on the album. With an opening line like ‘Mississippi swinging got a whiskey sipping honey on my left hand’ you know its going to be a belter. Its a song whereby if you heard this in a pub, you’d stop drinking and start had banging. The other two highlights being ‘Hell Fire Holy Water’ and massive closer, ‘Dead Man Walking’. Its almost as if Kira Mac have a random song title generator. ‘HFHW’ will go gown a storm live as a singalong moment (I guarantee it), and ‘DMW’ is the song that started it for me. Its based on a massive chunky riff, Kira Macs vibrato vocal styling and tasty guitar solo. ‘Downfall’ ups the ‘heavy’ to 11 and ‘Never Going to Stay’ is the king to ‘Downfalls’ yang. ‘Never…’ definitely has a Nashville country influence and is probably the most mainstream sounding song on the album

What Kira Mac have delivered is extraordinary. It is ten songs of pure quality, that after just one listen will make you ride that rollercoaster and pay to take the ride again and again. Its not perfect, but it is 35 minutes of absolute enjoyment. I really think that Kira Mac deserve to be going places. The debut album is out at the end of this week (18th November), and a UK tour follows hot on the heels, starting in Edinburgh two days later (20th November).

9/10

Tracklisting – 

One Way Ticket

Hit Me Again

Chaos Is Calling

Back For More

Imagine What Could’ve Been

Mississippi Swinging

Hell Fire Holy Water

Downfall

Never Going To Stay

Dead Man Walking

Album Line Up

Joe Worrall – Guitar

Alex Novakovic – Guitar

Bret Barnes – Bass

Cal Casey – Drums

Kira Mac – Vocals

Feature band image is courtesy of Emilia Drag

Scarlet Rebels – ‘See Through Blue’ Album Review

Few bands get better with each and every album. Scarlet Rebels are one such animal. If you thought you liked the debut…sit down and strap yourself in for a helluva ride!

Review by Paul Chesworth

Wayne Doyle, frontman with Welsh rockers Scarlet Rebels, was watching TV in the middle of the pandemic when he found his anger rising. Some faceless British politician – he can’t remember which one, mainly because they mostly look the same – was shamelessly taking credit for footballer Marcus Rashford’s successful campaign to reinstate free school meals for children during those difficult times.
“This guy was basically hijacking something someone else had done,” says Wayne, the ire still evident in his voice. “I was watching these politicians coming on the news every day, trotting out absolute bullshit and using the world’s downturn to make a profit for themselves. And no one from the other side was calling them out in it. Politics is so corrupt. It needs a kick up the arse.”

This state of affairs inspired the title track of the Llanelli five-piece’s stellar new album, ‘See Through Blue’. Bands nowadays are not really allowed to have a ‘voice’ when it comes to politics these past few years. But it has been the case for many a year, attacks against the establishment, dictators, politicians, etc. Sticking it to ‘The Man’ has been part and parcel going back to the foundations on which rock was built – The Blues. It is refreshing to see a band stick two fingers up to the Tories in 2022. I sense a kindred spirit.

The Band Scarlet Rebels shot for EarAche Records

‘I’m Alive’ is snappy and to the point, and its a decent opener, but ‘Storm’ is magic. It reminds be of a now defunct but also brilliant band called Sons Of Icarus. ‘Storm’ is as catchy as Omicron (too soon?), or catchier than a baseball clove dipped in superglue. ‘These Days’ sounds on the surface like its a nice little pop ditty, but dig beneath the surface and it’s a darker narrative – social media, the (current) Government not feeding school kids, and BLM. Mr Doyle has a message and its a barbed one with feeling and meaning, wrapped in nice pleasant riff. ‘London Story’ tells a story of a love that’s lost, a modern Romeo and Juliet, only Wayneo lives to tell the tale. It a song with a bit more oomph. ‘I Can Sleep Now’ is a belting song. It is moody and brooding to start but slowly it builds the tension into a completely different animal. By the time you get to the bridge a crescendo awaits from the twin guitars and Doyles very emotive vocals. I reckon that this is probably the best song of their career. Really, it is.

‘I Can’t Say’ opens with a choppy riff and quickly becomes a raucous pop song, but then again, what isn’t in this album, SR are a band destined for major radio play. ‘Take It’ on the surface sounds like another pleasant song, but has a much darker meaning once you delve deeper. To top it off it comes with a belting guitar solo. ‘Leave A Light On’ is a part acoustic (not a ballad) with some proper soul searching lyrics. The bloke is getting a hug next time I see him. It’s a lovely song that will speak volumes and strike a chord to many a SR fan. Wayne sings ‘Just who I am and what I’ve become, this empty vessel that sings a few songs’. You are so much more than that.

‘We’re Going Nowhere’ is a straight up rock song and as usual the chorus is instantly singable. ‘Everything Changed’ is all about the bass and drums, but again it’s also fuelled by another stonking chorus. Finally its the title track ‘See Through Blue” and Im sticking my neck out here but I think Wayne’s not a fan of Boris! Me neither. Bands have also had a voice when it comes to railroading against the ‘Establishment’, and none more so here. Probably two years after this song was written, nothing has changed and STB is still 100% on the button. ‘Do as I say, not as I do’. Fuck, it is like it was only written last week!!! It is probably even more apt in this current clusterfuck of a Tory government. A leopard definitely doesn’t change its spots

There is good reason why Earache teamed up with Scarlet Rebels, and that reason is ‘See Through Blue’. Its early January 2022, and I can honestly say that STB is going to be one of my albums of the year

Its a rare these days for bands to get better with each and every album. OK this is only No.2, but if you include the V0id output then my comment is confirmation that SR are onto something. Scarlet Rebels are the best band you haven’t heard of…….yet! The way Boris is going there’s enough fuel for the fire of another couple of albums worth of material.

I urge you to give Scarlet Rebels ’See Through Blue’ a listen and support a cracking British rock band. I’ve enjoyed the ride so far and I honestly cannot wait to see where it takes them over the next couple of years.

Scarlet Rebels –
Wayne Doyle – Vocals, Guitar
Chris Jones – Lead Guitar
Josh Townshend – Guitar
Wayne ‘Pricey’ Esmonde – Bass
Gary Doyle – Drums

Tracklisting
I’m Alive
Storm
London Story
These Days
Take You Home
I Can Sleep Now
I Can’t Say
Take It
Leave A Light On
We’re Going Nowhere
Everything Changed
See Through Blue

Links –

Album pre-order: https://earache.com/scarletrebels
http://scarletrebels.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb_chrUcU1G7VFXiPQi3rLA
https://www.facebook.com/scarletrebels
https://twitter.com/scarletrebels
https://www.instagram.com/scarletrebelsofficial
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1gVWbJsabbAcgkD24oEVR9
https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/scarlet-rebels/1466928458