Badmouth

Self-released
2007

Sotckholm, Sweden's Badmouth just formed last summer and already they have an EP out and are touring soon. The opening track "Pedal to the metal" comes blasting on sounding somewhat like a cross between early Skid Row and Dokken. The music is simple, but tight and the vocals fit in well enough. The next track "Super-Sassy glossy lips" is fortunately not as awkward as the song title. This finds the band going at more of a mid-tempo yet they have a steady grip on where they are going and it works well enough. However, they begin to lose me a little after that. "Cocaine girl" has more of an AC/DC rhythm at it's heart, but unfortunately not enough energy to make it more than just okay. "Rivethead" is an uneven track that just sounds like nothing about it is ever really fleshed out. The music is just kind of there at best and the vocals kind of happen, but they don't do much on their own or help out the song as a whole. This song honestly felt about twice as long as it really was. "Dance Little Sister" has a thick guitar sound, but it's somewhat undermined by being too repetitve and the flat vocals ensure that the song never really gets going. "The Last Train" has the band raising the bar somewhat as everyone seems on the right page and they actually seem to have a gameplan as to how to make this song work. Nothing special, but decent enough and better than the previous three songs. Really this is just a mixed bag although even the better songs are really just fairly good. I like some of the guitar sounds and it's maybe a little refreshing that a band from Sweden is playing straight hard rock instead of glam. However, they are really lacking the hooks, and the energy and drive that the better hard rock bands bring. Also the vocals were oftentimes a bit too flat for me and that didn't help as it actually made the songs even more tedious. I really think they need a lot work to avoid getting swept under by a lot of much better bands that are coming out today.

http://www.myspace.com/badmouthswe