PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Switzerland based rockers ‘Sideburn’ have just released “Electrify”, their first since the lineup change way back in 2012, three young guns in the form of Lawrence Lina with Mike Riffart on Guitars and Bass player Nick Thornton joined the old pro’s Roland Pierrehumbert on Vocals, and Lionel Blanc on Drums to bring us a very very good hard rock album.
The album opens with a thunderous “Bite The Bullet”, and continues in the same hard rock vein until “Black Powder” slows things down for a bit, but not for long though, as we have the mighty “Mr. Clean” that raises the tempo again. “Travellin`Man” brings a noticeable Blues element into the mix, while some light Country music influence can be heard on “Bad Reputation” and “Destination Nowhere”.
Although you may hear the influences of the Blues all over this album, this is a hard rock album that has a strong L.A. sleaze feel to it, think L.A. Guns, and possibly Great White. What Sideburn do is bring all those influences together in a slab of old school 80’s style rock.
The overall production is slick, which will come as no surprise when you realize Beau Hill mixed it, that man is a genius.
“Electrify” really lives up to its name, the guitar solos are great, adding depth to the songs as well as bite.
Some people may draw comparisons with AC/DC and to a lesser extent Airbourne on the first couple of listen’s, however I do not see it that way, as the more you listen to this album, the more of its own identity shines through, I see it as Sideburn, playing some great rock n roll.
‘Bad Boys, Bad Girls, Rock N Roll’ is for me the stand out track, however after a few listens, the slow burner ‘Black Powder’ is almost as good. What we have here is a quality opus with great songwriting, great playing, outstanding production and some nasty sleazy killer blues riffs.
On a side note, the song “Six feet under” (taken from their previous album “Cherry red”) has been chosen by 20th Century Fox to be used on the sound track to the film “The Wolverine”.
The CD version of this release includes the bonus tracks “Lazy Daisy Live”, “Never kill the chicken Live” &”Rockstar”, the download version only features the 11 original songs and the vinyl version which is only available in Switzerland includes only “Lazy Daisy Live” as bonus track.
Line-up: Roland Pierrehumbert : Lead Vocal, Harmonica; Lawrence Lina : Rhythm & Lead Guitar; Mike Riffart : Rhythm & Lead Guitar; Nick Thornton : Bass; Lionel Blanc : Drums
01. Bite The Bullet
02. Devil May Care
03. Bad Boys, Bad Girls, Rock`n`Roll
04. Black Powder
05. Frontline
06. Never Get Down
07. Mr. Clean
08. Shady Katy
09. Travellin` Man
10. Bad Reputation
11. Destination Nowhere
12. Lazy Daisy (Live 2012)
13. Never Kill The Chicken (Live 2012)
14. Rockstar
