Switchblade Suicide-s/t

Self-produced
2008

A lot of younger hard rock seem to be very into using the 80's scene as a template and unfortunately in some cases that means concentrating on image more than the music. Fortunately this young band from Worcester Massachusetts obviously spent much more time sharpening their chops than they did picking out their outfits or styling their hair and that's certainly an admirable trait. Since there are only three tracks here I think that it will be easiest to do a track by track breakdown. The opener "Stop your bitchin'" starts out like an AC/DC styled riff, but it stretched out a bit and the emphasis is switched up just enough to make it their own. The vocals are really gritty and actually contain some honest to goodness soul which really help sell this one. "Life fast, die young" reminds me a little of 70's KISS at the start, but it quickly gets way heavier and again we get this stretched out sound that really works. The vocals are strong and the flow is severely tight with all the instruments sounding in and grinding along. The final track "Rock 'n roll" might be the best song on the album. They reach back in time and pull out a riff that sounds like in tumbled right out of the late 1970's yet they quickly step things up a notch and they make the sound their own and never miss a beat. Really this is down and dirty hard rock with a firm attention to detail and I have no doubt these guys could really bring it live. My only complaint is that it's only three songs, I was really hoping for more and it's little to difficult to judge a band by just three songs although I certainly enjoyed the whole CD.


www.myspace.com/myswitchbladesuicide