On Top-Topless

Toil Records
2015 

It's no secret that I've been a fan of Philadelphia's On Top since first hearing their 2012 debut, "Top Heavy". A drop-dead serious heavy rock/heavy metal gem, "Top Heavy" left me with high hopes as to the the future of this fantastic power trio. It took some time, but the band did (eventually) make their return with a worthy follow-up in the form of 2014's  "Top to Bottom". Between that (highly-recommend!) EP and the band's (must own!) full-length debut, "Top Heavy", this hard rock/traditional heavy metal band was on easy street. Now On Top return's with their third release (and second overall 4-track EP in as many years) "Topless". Digitally at least, "Topless" is due out on July 9th and if this band was on easy street already thanks to their two previous releases then this new EP should make them the supreme rulers of the surrounding city, state, and country! For band-members Jaron Gulino (lead vocal/bass), Brian Davis (guitar/vocals), and Danny Piselli (drums/vocals) this is as good as it gets and then some! Recorded at Tribe Sound Studios in West Chester, Pennsylvania, engineered by Brian Davis, and mix/mastered by Chris "The Wizard" Collier (KXM, Lynch Mob), "Topless" features the same kind of (sleazy does it) hard & heavy rock that we've come to associate with On Top and once you hit play on this EP's aggressive opener, "Lie to Me", it's all but over friends! Forget about Looks That Kill as this Philly-based trio has Hooks That Kill! These four tracks make you want to get up and get down(!) with the razor rock guitar solos of Brian Davis simply being too good for words! Between those riff-rocking leads and Jaron Gulino's gritty/gruff voice* it's all solid-gold for On Top, but make no mistake as to this band's ultimate strength. For On Top it's always been about that perfect balance between the melodies and the muscle and that's never been more clear than on this catchy EP! On Top's rhythm section helps that along nicely with each individual number on "Topless" showcasing it's own unique charm. Rounded out by the cool songs "Crazy", "282", and "Got Me Runnin'​" (with that last one a real a beauty!) this EP is just what On Top fans need. For the time being this is only a digital release, but sometime down the road there's talk of "Topless" getting a proper CD release. Let's all hope that happens sooner than later and let us also hope that On Top doesn't make us wait that long for their next full-length   release!
 

* Last time around I described Jaron Gulino's voice as sounding like "Rage Against The Machine's Zack de la Rocha (if Zack had been influenced more by the likes of Bon Scott, Lemmy, Ozzy, etc.) going through a sleazy street metal phase". I'll stand by that statement and no, it's not a problem at all for this band! His voice works well with On Top's guitar-driven, rough and ready stab at heavy metal/hard rock and by this point in the game I simply cannot picture any other singer fronting this trio!

Rockstar Frame-Rock 'n' Roll Mafia

Musicarchy Media
2015

Every bit as hotblooded and a hundred plus times as sexy as it's artwork suggests, "Rock 'n' Roll Mafia" is the soon to be released (to great fanfare and widespread joy no doubt!) debut LP from Rockstar Frame. It was not even a week ago (last Wednesday to be precise) that I first introduced you to this hot new hard & heavy rock band and their even hotter single, "She's Hot". That pulse-raising piece of rebel rock was just phase one of this band's plan for world conquest. Now this Milan five piece is back in black and ready to finish the war that they started with "She's Hot" and I for one welcome our new conquers with open arms and raised first! To paraphrase The Ramones "I'm all revved up and ready to go" and I've got this band's first studio release all but CRANKED up as loud as if can be in the background so that every living soul can experience the next evolutionary & revolutionary leap in female-fronted hard rock for themselves! Or at least all the living souls in my little corner of the world as they are the ones getting rocked and rolled all over by what some people have been calling the "New Guns N Roses with killer female vocals"! That's not entirely unfair as Rockstar Frame do strike a similar pose to Axl Rose and company. Well, later day Axl Rose and his pals (as in G 'N R "Use Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II") as this Italian hard rock band also likes to utilize the winning combo that is screaming guitars and flashy keys! Still, Axl Rose comes across old and cranky when compared to Rockstar Frame's sultry lead singer Faith Blurry! A killer artist all her own, Faith has a set of pipes on her that can't be beat and her range is quite impressive (to say the least). There's a red hot fire burning deep down inside her that keeps the music of Rockstar Frame blazing! Faith Blurry could easily strike gold on her own as a singer so having someone this talented behind the mic gives this hard rock/heavy metal even more bite! There's also enough attitude in feisty front-lady Faith Blurry alone to make the Misfits' number "Attitude" sound like a silly love song! In other words she is the perfect weapon for these smooth criminals! But, let's take a step or two back as "Rock 'n' Roll Mafia" is actual the end of a journey that was first started back in 2012 by founding member and drummer extraordinaire Max Klein. At it's core,  Rockstar Frame is very much a tale of how one man's unfortunate accident would transform the lives of many in a truly healthy and positive way! The story begins with Rockstar Frame's Max Klein taking a nasty tumble down a cliff. That bit of misfortune left Max in a coma. While his loving and supportive family stayed by his bedside they played him rock music. As he lay unconscious Max soaked up all the good vibes that the music had to offer and when he eventually woke up he found that he was now inspired to create great music of his own! To that end the talented Max went out and recruited equally skilled musicians and with one thing leading to another we now find ourselves staring down the barrel of a gun named Rockstar Frame! That might be oversimplifying the whole history of this female-fronted heavy rock/hard rock band a wee bit, but just as Max believes that it was the rock music that his family played for him that helped to bring to him back around to the waking world I have to believe that it was more than just mere coincidence that these five musicians found each other. The music of "Rock 'n' Roll Mafia" suggests as much as this kind of band chemistry doesn't pop up everyday! As for the other key players involved? They would be guitarist Morris Steel, bass guitarist Andy Di Bella and keyboardist Ace Wave. Collectively these five good friends have turned a simple vision into a spectacular reality where eighties hard rock, blues rock and sleazy/pop metal are smoothed over by the sounds of heavy rock radio. It's a place where this band's colorful influences (from Guns 'N Roses to Aerosmith) are touched up and turned inside out in order to give all the dearly faithful something fun and catchy to scream and shout about! With it's electrifying material, "Rock 'n' Roll Mafia" is primal rock and roll from a one-time-in-a-million/billion hard and heavy act. Needless to say you are going to want this one for your own collection friends!

Dead Lucky-Sons Of Lazarus

Dr. Music Records | Membran
2015


Fittingly enough just released today (after all in my part of the word it's Friday the 13th boys and ghouls!) and with the skull-cracking /widow-shattering lead single, "Live Fast, Die Last" (see video below), serving as much as a warning shot across the bow as it does a wake-up call for all the lazy & crazy (!), "Sons Of Lazarus" is the full-length release from dirty (lean, mean, cruel and obscene) riff-rockers Dead Lucky. This hard & heavy/loud & proud South African mosh-effect metal band was founded in 2011 and when it comes to the current line-up of Kyle Lucky (vocals), Alex Krause (guitars), Chris Bornman (guitars), Chris Thunderbolt (bass) and Jean Labuschagne (drums) all things point toward world-wide destruction! Or at very least this is the band that you should be looking out for/looking forward to gutting rock and roll and restoring it's long-gone honor and glory! On this Theo Crous (Prime Circle, Parlotones, Karen Zoid, …) and Brendyn Rossouw-produced album we're treated to the sounds of one band that isn't afraid to mix their Motörhead- love with bands as diverse as White Zombie is to Deep Purple and once the title track rushes in and kicks the door wide open it's game on baby! For anyone that just loved Samhain and the first Danzig LP this is going to be your midnight salvation and I can't help but imagine that this 12-pack would also answer the age old question of what you might get if you crossed Iggy and the Stooges with "Club Daze" Twisted Sister! Whether you're talking about wine, women and song or sex, drugs and rock and roll it's all good my friends as these 12 (hit it and quit it!) songs have got you covered! There's not much more to it then that so what exactly are you waiting for?

Fatal Smile-White Trash Heroes

FS Records/GMR Music Group
2014

Calling Stockholm, Sweden their home base of operations, Fatal Smile, who site bands like Whitesnake, Dokken, Metallica, W.A.S.P. (incidentally the band has toured with W.A.S.P. five times now and the track "Hip MF" features a guest appearance by W.A.S.P. guitarist Douglas Blair!) Accept and Dio as influences (count Kiss, Ozzy and Ratt among the many influences as well), are a hard & heavy four-piece that was first dreamed up back in the mid-nineties! That would be 1995 to be exact when guitarist (and main song-writer) Mr Y first put out the call for fellow heavy metal brothers/hard rock and rollers to join him in this Swedish delight. For whatever reason though Fatal Smile would have to wait until 2002 to release their full-length debut album, "Beyond Reality". Now some twelve years later Fatal Smile is on album number five with "White Trash Heroes" and, with the band currently rounded out by vocalist Blade, bassist Alx and drummer Philty, things couldn't be better (sound-wise) for this Swedish act if they tried! Produced by Mr. Y and engineered/recorded by Philty (with the two mates having mixed the release together!) "White Trash Heroes" is (simply-stated) a gritty metal release that is (according to the bandmates themselves) "louder, harder and faster" then any previous material! Whatever the case it's a reminder that hard and heavy (hard rock and heavy metal) can be a very cool thing when it doesn't fancy itself too much and instead simply concentrates on the task of rolling out tasty (raw) rock riffs that are fueled by a kindred sense of rebellion! Whether this band can brake on through Europe and then charge into the U.S. is anybody's guess, but if you are looking for a band to add to your with daily soundtrack then look no further! That's providing of course that your daily soundtrack features the likes of (early) Twisted Sister, Dokken, solo Ozzy and of course W.A.S.P.!

Diamond Lane-Terrorizer

Self-Release/Independent
2014

"Terrorizer", the upcoming new release from L.A.'s Diamond Lane, is due out next month and up front let's state the obvious. If you were a fan of either 2011's "World Without Heroes" (the band's debut full-length release) or last year's EP, "Sapphire", they you are going to love this new 9-track album. For anyone who has yet to hear Diamond Lane then let's spell it out. Somewhere between a more metallic version of hard rock and a less sleazy version of eighties hair metal is where you'll find this five-piece parked and hanging out and with "Terrorizer" lead vocalist Brandon Baumann stay true to their trademark sound while the group occasionally pushes the limits of their sound into an area usually reserved for N.W.O.T.H.M. bands. Early on cuts like "The Enemy", "Cheating Death", "Slow Destruction" and  "Life to Lose" (a cut that blazes towards true heavy metal!) show that the band can still write the kind of heavy hitting hard rock that makes small music venues shake, rattle and roll while tracks like "Kiss The Ring" and "Hopeless Romantic" recall this L.A. band's earlier years when the band excelled at pumping out their own brand of Skid Row-like hard and heavy. Saving one of the better tracks for last, Diamond Lane swaggers their way through "New Model" which, in a better light of day, could be a lost lost Mötley Crüe track that was given new life and a real bad attitude makeover to make it more mean and way more desirably! But then again, Mötley Crüe never employed a pair of guitarists like Jarret Reis and Frankie Lindia! Together they deliver scorching leads that recall the glory years of heavy metal! Even ending on a bait of a down note with the half ballad/half rocker "Drift" (the one track that has throwaway written on it) couldn't spoil this party as "Terrorizer" proved to be a worthy follow-up to the group's last two recordings and a positive step forward towards even better things to come. 

http://diamondlanerocks.com/

Roadfever-Wolf Pack

Avenue Of Allies
2013

Call it a "Whoa!" man's intuition or call it a (rock and roll) religious awakening, but there was just something about the art-work for "Wolf Pack" that told me that I would love this Swiss four-piece from the word go! . Whatever it was that tugged at my inner (vibe) strings sure proved to be spot-on right. Still, that is of no real help to you, our faithful reader and fellow fan of all things rock and roll/heavy metal, so let's stay on focus and discuss where a band like Roadfever fits in the grand scheme of things. Or at least as far as the rock and metal community is concerned. Before we go all the way there (and sink our teeth into the meat of the matter as it pertains to "Wolf Pack") I do need to make one statement ladies and gents. As I sat down and listened to this 11-track album, which is actually Roadfever's sophomore output, a thought popped into my head like one of those big light-bulbs that you see appear over the heads of cartoon characters when they get a "bright" idea. I could pretty much guarantee that had the female-fronted Roadfever, and their guitar-driven, Southern Rock/Classic Rock-leaning, heavy and hard power rock approach to life music, been around in the mid to late eighties (and maybe even the early part of the nineties) they would have been the real deal and quite likely have become a wildly popular and famous act! From the lead vocals of Stevie "Manou" Pike (Sharper, State of Mind, Manou and the Moneymakers) to the drumming of Pascal Bavaud (Rash Panzer, State of Mind, The Persuaders and the Red Eyed Farmers) everything here of "Wolf Pack" just about lives and breathes in the afterglow of all things eighties! Although let's be perfectly fair here. Even if these rockers have an eighties buzz about them it's not as if "Wolf Pack" is just an excuse to get all nostalgic about the "good old days". Instead we find Roadfever threading the needle between the past (Lynyrd Skynyrd, AC/DC, ZZ Top, Kiss, Blackfoot and even Van Halen appear as influences here) and the present with a style that is neither old nor expressly new. If anything the band, which also includes guitarist David Patriat and bassist Jessie Be, comes across as just Roadfever, meaning of course that the four are on to something new and that ain't easy! When it comes to Roadfever both the body and spirit are willing and everything about "Wolf Pack" speaks volumes about not only their professionalism and skill as actual musicians, but also there ability to infuse the material on album number two with actual emotion! And yes, there is a difference boys and girls. Having so far shared the stage with the likes of Blackfoot, Scorpions, Trust, Uli John Roth, Pretty Maids, Rhino Bucket, Eric Singer Project and Little Caesar, which is interesting as quite a few of those acts serve as influences to these Swiss rockers, this is one band that deserves a wider audience and should click with the American market. With one other full-length album and a DVD release to their name ( "Wheels On Fire" and "Live in Geneva" respectively) the band seems poised to take that next (much-heralded) step into the main-stage spotlight. Can a band that hails from Switzerland really conquer the American market with a style of hard rock that is Southern-styled and custom-fitted with 80's influences? How about one that has a lead singer who is equal parts Stevie Nicks, Janis Joplin and Taylor Dayne while also one of a kind original? Sure, why not!! After all rock and roll is a universal groove as is good, straight-up hard rock. So a band like this can and should make a splash on the worldwide stage.