Telsa Releases New Album 'Shock'

Tesla's new album Shock is available now. I was hoping to listen to it yesterday and review today but it didn't happen. I logged 60 hours at work last week and I've got an article due for the Dayton Business Journal plus my parents are coming to visit... so I just didn't have dedicated time to sit and really listen. But hopefully that will happen sometime this weekend! Apparently you can actually buy a physical CD of this album at Target with three bonus tracks. Amazing.

Buy Tesla 'Shock' Here

Here's your shot of adrenaline ⚡⚡
Crank up our new album SHOCK available everywhere 🔥 #NewMusicFriday Purchase & Listen ► https://t.co/kjQbLOiv2Q pic.twitter.com/UuBVzJrF3A

— TESLA™ (@TeslaBand) March 8, 2019

Our good friends @TeslaBand released their brand new album Shock today, produced by Phil Collen! Listen here: https://t.co/vOT49x8HV5 pic.twitter.com/YMxhQHpYJB

— Def Leppard (@DefLeppard) March 8, 2019

Comments

[Kixchix]

Album is getting some crazy good press and reviews for band of their stature. But it’s a no go for my tenured ears. Jeff Keith’s voice was nasally but powerful 30 years ago. Now it’s just nasally. Eddie Trunk streamed Love Song (my fav from them) from Shiprocked last week and Jeffs voice is toast.

Love the band. Just not spending money on them anymore

[Metalboy!]

Listened to the whole album and it’s actually pretty good. And if you’ll recall, this is coming from someone who pretty much despises this band of tools for how I witnessed them treating people (Remember, as I’ve explained before, NOT me!) on Sh*trocked! and a couple of the Monsters of Rock Cruises

Admittedly, Keith’s voice is semi-shot but he can still belt ‘em out. And the songs that ROCK are loaded with guitar really crank in a lot of ways, harder than the majority of any of their previous material.

I was really hoping “Shock” would be a total HARD ROCK outing befitting of an album with that title but, understandably, they had to add on the proverbial couple of powerballads to placate their diehard Receptionist Rock fans in order to sell them a few albums.

Rvrn though it IS hard to get past the Def Leppardesque feel to the whole affair (at times, it gets so blatant, you could swear you ARE actually listening TO Def Leppard. I mean, they sound so convincing like them, it’ll have you popping off those Sennheisers of yours to double check if your dreaming or not.

And it seems this has always been the problem with Phil Collen, the producer. He always inevitably produces albums that almost always ultimately sound like they could be Def Leppard albums, case in point, take a listen to BB Steal, another one of Collen’s victims, er ..., I mean, bands he produced.

“Steal” is the word for it and all Collen had to do was steal from Steve Clarke and his own band to make that album as well as this one! It’s still quite an achievement, regardless, as a Def Leppardized Tesla is a helluva lot better than that h*ck sh*t they were putting out before.

Still, avid Tesla fans might have trouble accepting the new “Defla” much the way Saxon fans rejected their “Destiny” album or Celtic Frost fans despised “Cold Lake”.

Tesla could very well be kicking their own collective as*es now for making the same mistake BB Steal did when they handed Collen the keys to control room. That is, unless BB Steal gleefully and willingly decided to become a virtual Def Leppard tribute band.

But honestly, there’s so much I personally like about this album, I’m willing to let go of all of Def Leppard comparisons and appreciate Tesla’s desire to do something different, even if it does mean sounding like something that is not different.

Yet, there is enough going on with EVERY track on this album, as you will hear, you should enjoy listening to it as much as I do!

Come to think of it, this may be the best album Def Leppard has put out in years!

p.s. Speaking of which, when you do manage to duct tape your Sennheisers back together and then duct tape ‘em to your ears, tell me that isn’t Collen contributing some guitar parts here and there. And what about those back up vocals? They sound uncannily like Collen got his Def Leppard bandmates to come ‘round the studio in support of their touring protégés in much the same way it was rumored The Beatles sang backups for Badfinger when George Harrison produced their album “Straight Up”.

[Metalboy!]

... And FYI, I’m heading up to Target anyway tomorrow so so will pick up the CD (if they do indeed have it at the store) for the 3 bonus tracks.

[Jeff]

Great review Metalboy! Looking forward the checking the whole album out, even though "Taste Like" is strikingly similar to the Lep's song Nine Lives. It seems like Collen plagiarized himself on that one.

[Jack T. Ripper]

Fantastic Album!!!!!

[SparkyDR99]

I picked up a copy on release day at an independent record store and gave it a spin. (No Bonus Tracks, Dag!) The first thing that stood out was that Phil Collen literally joined the band for this record. He produced it, co-wrote all 12 tracks, and is credited with additional guitars and vocals in the liner notes. It SOUNDS great as far as production, and the songs have a HEAVY Def Lep and even Foreigner feel to them. I would have liked 1 or 2 more rockers, but it is a solid release. If it was 1989 this record could have had 8 singles pulled from it. It's good to see classic bands keeping their creative juices flowing. Well Done.

[Bkallday]

Not a very good release for Tesla, imho. A few good rocking songs but not enough. Too much sappy crap for my taste. One ballad is fine, two under protest, but more than that is just overdoing it. But of course the king of sap himself, Phil "Frodo" Collen, helped produce and mix the record. So i guess I should've expected it. I give it a 6 outta 10.

[Metalboy!]

Great intel, Sparky. Had a hunch he was a playin’ and a singin’ on this, let alone a writin’ on it, too!

Honestly, it’s a good thing he did as I agree with your overall review as well as BK’s in terms of ballads, etc. Still, the Rockers are killer even if they did have Phil Collen essentially as the 6 member to ensure the delivery of high quality music.

p.s. Thanks for the kind words, Jeff.

[Metalboy!]

Oh, I got an update on those exclusive bonus tracks in the Target (pronounced Tarsjay) version of “Shocked”...

Unfortunately, the tracks are nothing more than remixes of songs already on the album, specifically, “Love Is A Fire”, “California Summer Song” and “Forever Loving You”.

BUT, I haven’t heard ‘em so maybe, just maybe, these “alternate mixes” are heavied up versions dialing back the saccharin instrumentation.

If they were new tracks or even just one something different, I would have bought it right then and there. If anyone’s got the scoop on these alternate mixes — if they are more or less the same or quite different, I would love to know more!

[CanadianMetal]

Never a huge fan of the band:

However, I bought a TESLA (car) recently and wow it is like going from a flip phone to an iPhone .

Love it

[bkallday]

Cool story! I recently bought a Ferrari though, so im obviously much cooler. Sorry