X-DRIVE – Get Your Rock On

CD400_inSpearheaded by unknown guitarist Jeremy Brunner, X-Drive is a hard rock project that celebrates 80s melodic rock in a particularly unashamed and brazen fashion. Joining Brunner on this particular journey are ex-White Lion bassist James Lomenzo, Montrose vocalist Keith St. John and Midline drummer Fred Fischer. They say you can’t always judge a book by the cover, but this band’s general style should be obvious after one look at their dubious choice of album sleeve. It’s not as bad as Montrose’s staggeringly awful ‘Jump On It’ – a sleeve that clearly inspired the end result – but it’s pretty unnecessary.

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W.A.S.P. – The Headless Children

The_Headless_ChildrenAfter the release of three studio albums and a live record, by 1988 US shock-rockers W.A.S.P. had gained a loyal fan-base.  However, thanks to their potentially objectionable songs and frontman Blackie Lawless’s larger-than-life attitude, the band had even more detractors. Since their stage show featured raw meat, torture racks and naked women and their albums were filled with more profanity and sexist material than most bands had dared to commit to plastic by that point on the time line of hard rock history, they made life-long enemies with Tipper Gore and her self-righteous band of moral guardians in the US.

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OF ALLIES – Tempers EP

of allies epTogether for only a year at the time of its release, ‘Tempers’ by UK alt-rockers Of Allies shows a strong sense of focus and of self-belief.  The material doesn’t always show a great range of styles, but essentially this is a good thing – a sign of a band that know exactly what works for them, resulting in five numbers that include no unnecessary padding.  Bringing much heaviness, their crunch oft balanced with an accessibility , the EPs opening track ‘Ghosts’ really makes a play for catching the ear as quickly as possible– and very much succeeds. From a clean intro comprising a couple of clean guitar chords and a soft, heart-rending vocal, the band quickly branch out into a somewhat rhythmic piece, led which drummer Danny Barrick, rattling off his snares with speed.  This is intercut with a heavier chorus riff, the guitars adopting a dirty approach. While clearly comprised of three distinct parts, the bands strong feeling for melody gives everything a natural feeling of togetherness.  It’s a tune that should appeal to fans of bands in the Chevelle mould – heaviness with a very tuneful undercurrent.

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