Burnt Out Wreck – “This Is Hell”
Label: Burnt Out Wreckords/Cherry Red
Rating: 8/10
Review: Dawn Osborne
Burnt Out Wreck, Gary Moat’s (ex Heavy Pettin) new band have taken their time to bring out a second album, but it’s every bit as good as their excellent first. If you know the band you will know they specialize in AC/DC style hard rock with its roots in a time when this kind of rock was the heaviest around. The days before anyone had ever hard of a death growl and all rock was generally melodic and all guitar playing was generally skillful. Certainly a good thing in my eyes.
First single, ‘Dead or Alive’, has that familiar AC/DC style groove and vocal. ‘Paddywack’ goes with a swing and is probably the catchiest song on the record. It’s highly successful in the UK where they love a good double entendre, even when it’s new to a large part of the audience. From crowd reaction I would say this is set to be one of this band’s classics of the future along with ‘Rock Hard Sticky Sweet’ and ‘Just a Dog’ whos lyrics are all very much in the tongue in cheek AC/DC vein. ‘Positive’ is a pretty dark song with a twist at the end and while the vocal is still a bit Bon Scott-ish they have gone some way to make a record that is a little different.
‘Headfuck’ and ‘This is Hell’ are also examples where lyrics update the material with a post 90’s aesthetic. ‘Snow Falls Down’ Anglifies proceedings with a song about the weather. ‘Guitars Electrified’ is good time rock n roll boogie with a rollicking Angus style solo.
This album is vibrant like the early Bon Scott records, takin the best of the AC/DC sound, giving great machine head, while avoiding being more formulaic. If you love classic AC/DC, but fancy some new tunes you can be sure you will get what you want from this album.
Related Links:
