street date 01.06.2004

preview - review by Matthew "Newbreed99" Haumschild___

To be honest, I have no idea where this band is from but this band's sound stems from Hard Rock from the early 90’s straight out of southern California. However I doubt that is there the band is from. Before you even listen, I can tell you the vocals sound very similar to Lemmy from Motörhead and the band sounds like Ozzy Osbourne’s band. Which to me is an interesting mixture. You cannot listen to this as if it were a metal cd, it seems too much like a almost mainstream, early 90’s, hard-rock band.

Although there is something to be said about every track, I’ll keep it short and go over a few songs.

“Theatrical Trailer”
I thought this was actually a very cool intro to the album. Although, many bands have elaborate introductions to there albums, this one ranks in my top 5 in my favorites. I almost laugh every time I hear it I like it so much. So mysterious, so spooky to be honest I can’t tell if they are serious or not. I like it though. They have a professional voice over guy saying stuff that you normally hear in a movie trailer for a horror film doing this and…I’ve lost for this, it’s great, if there’s an MP3 of this…download it, it’s worth having just the trailer in your collection.

“Blood Red Sandman”
This song although has an unusual beginning, it starts out with a music box for about 20 or so seconds then the guitars blast through with a nice bell chime timed just right. I also noticed they have a back track that you would normally hear in a band that has a more electronic sound. I have also noticed this track has more of a dance back track then the rest of the songs on this CD. Overall this song is an upbeat tune with chugging guitars reminiscent of Hard-Rock from the era I described above. The lyrics almost have this King Diamond character to it.

“Bring It On”
This song without a doubt has a Hard Rock feel to it and the track that is the heaviest on the whole CD. If your not careful, you could feel yourself nodding your head with the beat of the music. This track just seems like a typical hard-rock song, it’s steady the time signature doesn’t change until towards the end of the song towards an interlude that doesn’t last very long, then it goes back to the same time signature in no time. The drum lines are very basic, the lyrics are also basic, and the basic rhythm is basic. In a way this is refreshing, not so complex just straight up rock. This is one of my favorite tracks.

“Fire In The Hole”
This track has more of an 80’s introduction than anything else. Overall this has more of an 80’s hair-band feel to it. From what I can tell by the lyrics, it’s as if “Lordi” is speaking to a woman. This is a love song if you haven’t figured it out yet. I’ll be surprised if this song doesn’t hit radio. It sounds a lot like some of the other rock-love songs you hear from yesteryear, more like from Quiet Riot, Ratt, and yes…Ozzy Osbourne.

“My Heaven Is Your Hell”
I actually hear harmonics in this song! Granted it’s in the beginning but it’s a breakthrough! It also has this “Psycho” sound clip in the begging. Then after the riveting guitars, are some light vocals then it switches gears completely and goes upbeat. Chorus of this song is a bit unusual too; I could imagine people dancing to it! Yet it has a descending scale. The lyrics are catchy in this song, Lordi is also singing differently in this song, he has a light rasp in this song that he doesn’t always have in the other tracks. It reminds me of Jaz Coleman’s vocals from Killing Joke. This is another one of my favorites.

Overall, I have listened to this CD about four or five times now and I still have mixed feelings. It’s not bad it’s a little cheesy in some parts but great in others. I am still trying to figure out if it’s some sort of a parody or not, especially with the introduction giving me the impressions the songs are of a horrific nature but I wasn’t shocked in the least. If they came through town, I’d go and see them. I would say that there are a few songs I could hear on the radio. I would say check them out you have nothing to lose from this band and they are a nice alternative to blistering Death-Metal with an old school flare to them. 


rating:  7/10 

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