A New Revenge... Is Good?!?

Today's post is from our friend HIM.

Listen to this:

Am I wrong to be cautiously optimistic? Probably. This could end up being yet another one of those cookie-cutter, here today and gone tomorrow, ‘supergroups’ that never tour, and never release another album. That pattern was perfected (if that is the right word) by Frontier Records: plug-and-play bands that always disband.

 

This is also a scuffed group of major/minor players: Tim “Ripper” Owens (“Cathedral Spires” is a brief moment of absolute glory during his stay in Priest), bassist Rudy Sarzo (who has played on every B-list metal album ever produced, and a few A-list ones as well), Keri Kelli (no slouch and a guy whose real last name is Fear . . . that’s metal!), and drummer James Kottak (stay for Kingdom Come, leave for drunken antics at an airport that end up with him leaving the Scorpions). This is also a variation on Project Rock (goodbye, Zig-Zag).

 

But Timothy sounds great here and isn’t wearing that dumb cap. The rest of the band is in good form as well (even if Sarzo was busy forming another group and they had to get Jake E. Lee’s nemesis Soussan to fill in for the video). The sound is modern, but not annoyingly so. The song is simple, but not without some cool moments. The video is what you would expect nowadays.

 

Even the label, Golden Robot Records, has a bit of cache for those of us who love old school rock and metal. Their roster includes John Sykes, Bach, and freaking Rose Tattoo, as well as King’s X and The Lazys (you know I love that band). Well, it also includes Mi-Sex (?), Fyre Byrd (?!), and Groom Epoch (?!?!). But it doesn’t seem like the Frontier Factory that has made a great AOR band like Hardline sound lame and limp. So there’s that.

 

I am, as I stated, cautiously optimistic. I like it when older players make newer sounding songs that don’t suck. I will wait and see if the album lives up to the promise. One thing, though, guys: your album cover for Enemies & Lovers looks like a V.C. Andrews knock-off that I would buy at a discount bookstore. It ain’t that hard to make a catchy cover. Those Aussies at Golden can surely fork over a bit more scratch.