Released by: earMusic
Release Date: 21st June 2019
Genre: Hard Rock
Links: https://www.hollywoodvampires.com/
Album Line-up:
Alice Cooper – lead and backing vocals, harmonica
Johnny Depp – slide, rhythm and lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards
Joe Perry – lead and rhythm guitar, backing and lead vocals
Track List:
1. I Want My Now
2. Good People Are Hard To Find
3. Who’s Laughing Now
4. How The Glass Fell
5. The Boogieman Surprise
6. Welcome To Bushwackers (feat. Jeff Beck & John Waters)
7. The Wrong Bandage
8. You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory
9. Git From Round Me
10. Heroes
11. A Pitiful Beauty
12. New Threat
13. Mr. Spider
14. We Gotta Rise
15. People Who Died
16. Congratulations
When I reviewed the Hollywood Vampires gig in London, I stated that even if it was just a glorified, rock royalty, karaoke session….at the end of the day who cares. It was an evening filled with glamour, danger and rock classics…so what was not to like?
I did however, feel that I needed to hear some of the song writing talent shine through from each of these musicians and I hoped that their new offering ‘Rise’ would showcase this….and it does! ‘I Want Now’ draws us in with screaming guitars and crashing drums leading into a grooving beat of garage rock, which certainly has echoes of early 70’s Aerosmith. Complete with honky-tonk piano in the background, this certainly has an old school feel to its rock power.
The whole album is intermittent with small little spooky snippets like ‘Good People Are Hard to Find’ which has eerie echoing voices bringing a spinetingling feel to this simple vocal interlude. Whilst ‘Who’s Laughing Now’ has the thumping Rammstein tasting bassline for the intro to an ass kicking, heavy as you like, gorgeously tongue in cheek treat. LOVED THIS! It is no surprise that it was chosen for the first single from the album.
‘How the Glass Fell’ has the shadow of children’s voices alongside a harpsichord, giving us a haunting false sense of security, before Alice growls his way alongside a superbly orchestrated, humdinger of a strutting serenade in ‘Boogieman Surprise’
‘Welcome to Bushwackers’ (feat. Jeff Beck and John Waters) is a slice of beer drinking Americana and is refreshingly different, especially for Alice, and a fine ditty it is too. With superb guitar…well that goes without saying with ALL of the talent involved. This track is fun, foot tapping and tantalising for all those that love a good dose of Talk Box! ‘The Wrong Bandage’ is an interlude of Aladdin Sane piano strains and paves the way to ‘You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory’ which is a ballad of beauty and has the stunningly sexy vocals of Mr Joe Perry. This is really lovely, I’m not usually one for this type of track, but this is great!
‘Git from Around Me’ is deep, dark and dirty grunge and a stark contrast to the next goose-bump promising cover of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ sang by Johnny Depp, whose voice is absolutely perfect for this track…Bowie would be proud! Still reeling from the totally amazing ‘Heroes’, ‘A Pitiful Beauty’ slips into a creepy crawling musical interlude to reveal a full-on stonking Alice Cooper speciality with ‘New Threat’.
‘Mr Spider’ offers us a kaleidoscope of creepy Pink Floyd psychedelic horror and then some. ‘We Gotta Rise’ is an answer to Alice’s ‘Elected’ and a tongue in cheek track about lies and politics, lots of material there then! This rowdy shout out to all the crap going on in the world today, hits deep in todays times. Whilst ‘People Who Have Died’ is a noisy, punk-rockabilly tribute to all those rockers that have passed away.
The finale to this album is ‘Congratulations’, with its hauntingly constant rhythmic strumming and spoken vocals by the band. I can certainly feel the influence of Joe Perry much more with ‘Rise’ compared to the previous offering of their self-titled album. The boys have most definitely got into their groove and are plainly enjoying every moment they play together.
I give this a kick ass, blood sucking, totally fangtastic 9 out of 10.
Ratings: 9/10
Written by: Francijn Suermondt
My Global Mind – Staff Writer
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