Trancemission

Pure Rock Record
2012

Maybe it's too early in the morning (6:34 AM? Maybe? I was up late talking to my girlfriend Carrie so yeah, maybe it is just that) or not enough coffee, but this is just strange stuff. Since we start off with a number that is post-Black Sabbath meets hard rock meets spoken word I'd say that was slightly off kilter. For the record Trancemission were formerly known as Trance. Yes, that is the same Trance that released "Break Out" and "Power Fusion" back in the early eighties. This German band was formed back in 1979 and for legal reasons eventually had to change their name to Trancemission before they went back to Trance and then back again to Trancemission. Now, I have not heard either of those two early early albums in a long, long time so I don't recall off hand if they were as "different" as this album is. The promo does mention that the album is "an exciting new adventure between Heavy Rock and melodic Metal." Grant some songs do sound normal enough in a hard rock/heavy metal vibe like "You" and "House Of Love". The things is though that with numbers like "Sex Me Up" I was left scratching my head trying to figure out exactly what they were aiming for. Of course their was cuts I enjoyed so it wasn't all bad. "Thanks God I'm No Fool" resides somewhere between classic blues rock and a Lordi/Gwar mentality and it works. There is no real reason it should, but there it is coming out of my speakers and it all fits. I strongly suspect that the reason these few songs do work is because lead vocalist Lothar Anton does his best to come across as fellow German native Udo Dirkschneider. A ballad like "Susi 'n' Mape" does kind of remind me of solo Udo which makes it an easier number to get behind. Overall though this album is so hit or miss. The songs go everywhere which is just offsetting. Fans will probably enjoy this, but if you were to randomly run across this album I suspect you'd be left wondering what the ultimate point was too.