Gut Scrapers- Gimme Your Soul

Pure Steel Promotions
2012

It's always good to see the hard work of self-relying bands pay off. Gut Scrapers, who hail from Nimes, France, have the good fortune to have signed up with Pure Steel Promotions in a bid to push this album beyond it's native shores. That looks to be a win-win for both parties involved. Formed in 2008, with 2 demos preceding this full-length debut album, this 5-piece act was initially dawn together over a shared love of bands like AC/DC and Aerosmith as well as artists such as Slash. First issued at the tale end of  2012 (originally as a self-released recording one would assume) this album is made up of hard drinking (and even harder living) tunes that would rock the shell off of most clubs whether in their home country of France or not! While it's not as gritty as something you might expect to here rocking out of dive bars here in the states there still a wonderfully raw appeal to their hard and heavy rock n' roll style. The band's lead vocalist (who also handles acoustic guitar duties) is one Thierry Pitarch.  Sounding for all the world like Lemmy's cousin getting singing lessons from Udo Dirkschneider (if you can only imagine that!) his gruff vocals give this 5-piece act a little extra charm. That charm goes a long way as one could argue that guitarists William Cortier and Fred Fages ride the AC/DC fan wagon a little too close for comfort on "Gimmie Your Soul". Granted other acts come into play like G N' R, Accept, L.A. Guns, Poison (although certainly the more harder riffs of said band), Cinderella and yes, even Lemmy's band. Armed with a fairly lethal rhythm section in bassist Florent Cacheleux and drummer Pierre Mercier the band tears through the album's ten tracks with well over 75% of the material being downright garage rock groovy. Honestly, if I was reading about a band who drew from everyone from Aerosmith to Accept (and yes, even some 80's hair band influences) that actually kicked ass well, I'd also be a skeptic. It works though. Let's be clear though about who these guys are. For the record these guys lean more towards muscular metal than glitzy glam. Their raw material (meaning not for the kiddos) pushes this bunch more towards a traditional hard rock mentality so those looking for another retro-loving hair band will be sorely disappointed. However, the band does spice things up often times with blues riffs and even some jazz/fusion-type guitar playing so they are not quite a complete metal outfit either. The thing is these guys are the very definition of open-minded hard rock and, as the tear up and down the road way of life, they have a really good shot of catching on with the crowd that likes both AC/DC and Motörhead. The bottom line then? Well, this one is a really solid debut-album that shows room for improvement and yet, if you get right down the meat of the matter, it still does a smashing job of pumping out gritty hard rock music that easy to appreciate.