Released By : Rambo Music
Genre : Sleazy Hard Rock
Link : http://www.badmouththeband.com/
Tracklist:
01. Son Of Sam
02. Radiator
03. Judas
04. Silver Lining
05. City Is Burning
06. Tired
07. Bottoms Up
08. Blue Ribbon Days
09. Heavy Metal Parking Lot
10. Jake Brakes
11. Facing My Demons
Now here’s the perfect example of a band that knows what needs to be done to get some respect… BADMOUTH originally started as a bit of fun studio project between a few friends and was never intended at that stage to be anything more. Eventually though things started to take shape and the band got a bit more serious and all of a sudden in 2008 they had a full length album released. Now, while this self-titled release was enjoyable and a bit of innocent fun, there wasn’t much love for it from a press point of view and faded out pretty quickly. But unlike a lot of bands that would have just disappeared off the planet, BADMOUTH decided to knuckle down, address the issues and have a serious crack at things with another full length album HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT.
This new album improves on every element from the debut tenfold and if I didn’t know better I would swear it’s another group entirely. The base sound is still a pretty basic hard rock groove, but this time around the songs are catchy, the guitars are wailing nicely, the production sounds great through either headphones or large speakers, the vocals are spot on and most importantly the songwriting is much, much better. It’s also a little bit heavier this time around too, not heavy enough the be a metal disc but just heavy enough to ensure that it kicks your ass every time you hear it. I guess the band I can compare them to the most would be early day SINNER, but mixed in with a bit of an early day JUDAS PRIEST vibe with a touch of the melodic sensibilities of say TNT or TREAT. Certainly an interesting concoction and though to overall cohesion could still use a little bit of work the band have done an honourable job of combining their influences together nicely.
The lead-off single TIRED is a great fun dirty rock tune that will certainly get people interested to delve further into the album, which is a good thing because there is plenty more to be found in tracks like RADIATOR, BLUE RIBBON DAYS and the awesome title track HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT. A couple of the tunes feel a little like filler tracks but I think at least eight of the eleven tunes available here will please fans of this sort of music a lot.
HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT marks a vast improvement for BADMOUTH and if the band keeps growing in songwriting ability and execution at this fat rate they may just have a classic record up their sleeves somewhere in the future. Definitely check this out if you are a fan of anything to do with eighties arena rock or eighties metal.
Written By ZeeZee
Rating : 8/10