Released by: Drama Queen Media
Release Date: Out Now!!!
Genre: Hard Rock
Links: https://www.facebook.com/dramaqueenroxx
Line Up:
Tracklist:
1. Lovin’ You
2. Fine Line
3. Red Rocker Girl
4. Stop Me From Crying
5. You’re Going Down Tonight
6. We’re On Fire
7. Drama Queen
8. Welcome To the Party
9. Get Ready For Love
10. All I Ever Wanter
11. Annie
12. Fyre & Ice
Any music-oriented magazine, be it online or print, gets inundated daily by bands and labels hawking their product in hopes of scurrying up some promotion for their music. It’s virtually impossible to cover every band wanting to be reviewed. Most writers, in particular, us of the independent variety, do this for the love of the music, and not for fortune and glory (frankly, outside of getting name-dropped by bands, there’s no fortune and little glory.) But we all (I assume) do it for the love of the music, and the hopes of being instrumental in “discovering” the next big thing. I know in my area, there are many bands that view me as a champion of DIY music, but I’m simply a man that has grown up with music as one of the most important things in life and love spreading the good word. For every big act, I review, there are ten lesser or unknown bands I’m dying to talk about. Sadly, sometimes my personal life gets in the way, and some of those bands fall through the cracks. Luckily one of the bands that nearly fell through that crack is Drama Queen.
Hailing from Rockford, Illinois, Drama Queen is a great mix of 80’s Hard Rock a la Ratt, L.A. Guns, and Kix with a liberal heaping of Glam Metal like Vain and D’Molls. For me, they really found their niche on the more melodic tracks, as well as the slower songs. I will freely admit, the first couple is fairly cut and dry and standard fare for this type of band: cliche lyrics and that cock rock bravado that comes with the territory. Not that bravado and cliche are bad things, just saying there’s no real new ground broke here. However, the tracks have their own charm that drew me in to listen further. With their s/t debut, Drama Queen is able to tap into the vibe of the 80’s while keeping it interesting and fresh. They’re very reminiscent of another great band of this current revival of glammy 80’s hard rock, Kickin’ Valentina. The album really connected with me starting with “Stop Me From Crying.” For a meat and potatoes hard rock band, when they try to get softer it often comes off as cheesy and insincere. That’s not the case for Drama Queen. From this point forward (with the exception of the track “Welcome To the Party” which I never connected with) the album became a superb listen. The last three cuts “All I Ever Wanted,” “Annie,” and “Fyre & Ice” ended the album perfectly.
My go-to guy within Drama Queen for this review was drummer Rob Pace and he told me they weren’t ashamed to admit being honed on the 80’s era of hard rock. His enthusiasm for their s/t debut was enough to convince me to dig deeper into their album and I came away loving it. It’s at times gritty and dirty and others tender and passionate. I’m curious to see what’s ahead for these folks in the years to come. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Score: 8 out of 10
Reviewed by Chris Martin
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