XXX - review added 10th June 2009
Album Review: Heaven, Hell or Hollywood (2009)
For fans of: Hard Rock... and pretty good cover versions
XXX is an intriguing band to say the least. Featuring Snowy Shaw (drums and vocals), the imaginatively named 'X' (guitar and vocals) and Rob Nasty (bass and vocals), the band have quite a history behind them.
Snowy has performed and recorded with numerous well known bands over the years including King Diamond, Dream Evil, Therion, Mercyful Fate, Notre Dame and more. His bands have numerous styles and levels of heaviness and that history is as clear as vodka on Heaven, Hell or Hollywood.
The band play a hard rocking music that varies from glam metal to horror pop and sleaze rock. It's all influenced at base level by the American hair metal scene and British punk. There's an overwhelming dollop of Swedish cool in the mix too.
Large chunks of the record should clearly be locked in a padded cell. Listen to the first track 'Hello!' and you'll want to stuff hamsters in your ears to block out the sound. You could easily describe the vocals as characterful, but you'd be underselling their terrifying awfulness. The song itself is well written, fun and has some great harmonies, but those lead vocals are just abysmal. Of course they could be done for comedy value, but who can tell?
Things are much more positive on the following track. 'It's Suicide' may not have the most positive of ideologies in its title, but the song itself has an immensely anthemic nature. It's a riotously punkish track with a short-sharp-shock of a chorus and a simplistic, straight to the point message. Given the chance this could be one of those 'songs of the summer'. Oi, XXX, make a video for this and get it on MTV!
'Wall Of Fame' is a crazy little number. The riff is fantastically grinding and heavy, but the way they ream off various famous or infamous names is mightily nut-licious. Still, it's an entertaining and catchy track, even if it makes less sense than finishing this sentence with the word blancmange. The cover of Cheap Trick's 'I Want You To Want Me' is phenomenally good. It of course helps that the original song is so good, but XXX have given the song their own spin and, to be honest, it's hard to know whether this is any worse than the original - this version really is that good.
'Singalongsong' sounds very Poodles-esque in the inflections of the backing vocals. The rest of the track is as glam-punk as a Mohican in a silver ankle-length coat and mirrored platforms. 'Tomboy' is an interesting take on, er, music. It doesn't really follow any standard conventions and is all the better for it. It's as lairy as an agitated wolverine and as mad as a bag of flip-flops. It's difficult not to respect anything that's as mad as a bag of flip-flops.
'Miss Misery' is another contagious sing along number, whilst the final (title) track is like a cross between 'We Will Rock You', Wednesday 13 and Motley Crue. Some of the riffing is stomping and gnarly, whilst the chorus has a huge feel to it. It's a great way to round out the (surprisingly short) album.
So there you have it. The songs on Heaven, Hell or Hollywood? are well written and mostly immense fun. Some of the singing is gut wrenchingly terrifying, but just as much of it is brilliantly in keeping with manic nature of the record. XXX haven't produced a sublime journey through musical perfection with this album, but if you like something that's going to shake the cockles from your ears this'll be right up your street.
Check out... The artwork - produced by Al Rio from Marvel Comics. We like.
Track List:
1. Hello!
2. It's Suicide
3. We're Gonna Rock
4. Wall of Fame
5. I Want You to Want Me
6. Singalongsong
7. So Fxxxing You!
8. Tomboy
9. Miss Misery
10. Heaven, Hell or Hollywood?
Label: Perris Records
Artist's websites: Snowy Shaw , MySpace
