The Rocket Dolls – DeaDHeaD

The Rocket Dolls, a three piece heavy rock band, from Brighton self release their second full length studio album on 6th April 2018. DeaDHeaD was recorded at British Grove Studios and produced and mixed by Mark Roberts. Since forming in 2008 The Rocket Dolls won the best new band at the Pure Rawk awards in 2010, have supported bands such as Zico Chain and Black Stone Cherry and played at numerous festivals including Trash Stock and Hard Rock Hell.

Frontman Nikki Smash, says he wrote the album in a short space of time with a lot of the lyrics influenced by personal experiences such as being ill, fighting depression and becoming addicted to prescription pain killers. The album art work, by Sam Hayles at DOSEprod reflects the deep and personal lyrics, showing a wolf as part animal/part machine representing the change from bad to good and vice versa with the moving wolf signifying hope and the desire to defeat everything that’s wrong in this world.

The album has a very strong Seattle grunge vibe throughout, Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam sprung to mind with some other influences thrown into the mix along the way. Opening track None Of This Is Right has a very heavy bass line and had me thinking something along the lines of Metallica’s Enter Sandman mixed with the Foo Fighters’ Everlong played at slow speed! Title track DeaDHeaD remined me of Marilyn Manson’s Deep Six. She Said with it’s guitar strum opening was a bit By The Way by Red Hot Chilli Peppers. 

Drowning with a Paramore vibe, say That’s What You Get in slow motion. The Desperate with elements of Beast and The Harlot by Avenged Sevenfold. Rusty Bones a hard going Toolesque number think Prison Sex. Then we reach the final song Trigger, which starts off on a heavy monotonous note and nearly had me switching off but luckily I hung on in there to find that the song sped up towards the end, as though the album was giving one last blast in a race to a winning finish!

Whilst I picked up lots of diverse elements, not necessarily in the whole song, maybe in an intro, a riff or a beat overall I found DeaDHeaD heavy going. The angst and emotion is palpable. If you want to lose yourself in dark thoughts then this is the album to listen to.

For fans of Nirvana, Soundgarden and Tool.

Tracklist:

1. None Of This Is Right
2. She’s Starting Something Now
3. DeadHead
4. She Said
5. The Last Thing On My Mind
6. Stop The Dead Men Crying
7. Drowning
8. The Desperate
9. Strain
10. Rusty Bones
11. Trigger

The Rocket Dolls are:

Nikki Smash – Vocals & Guitar
Benji Knopfler – Drums & Backing Vocals
Joe Constable – Bass & Backing Vocals

Links

 Official Website /  Facebook /  Twitter / Instagram / You Tube

Pre-order the album on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/deadhead/1332273219

Stream ‘None Of This Is Right’ on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6WF692us4rdO9jTSH5PxE1?si=94FOJrtLSpC2–WvbdWqKg

The Rocket Dolls ‘Deadhead’ UK Tour