I'll admit, I was gunning for this disc to be SO bad, that it wouldn't even warrant ONE star...and guess what? I feel like an ass for making pre-concieved notions about what albums will be like. This is one terrific retro-blast of killer late 80's/early 90's cock-rock I sorely miss these days.
The Brides are made up of ex-MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx, ex-L.A.Guns guitarist Tracii Guns, and newcomer London
LeGrand on vocals and Scott Coogan on drums, make this disc one of the bigger surprises of the year thusfar. Standout
tracks include 'I Don't Care', 'Got A Gun', 'Life' and 'Only Get So Far' are terrific, well written hardrock tracks without nary a trace of grunge or punk (which this band tried to push VERY hard - but I just don't hear the connection ONE BIT). London has a decent, middle-of-the-road type voice, but it's his delivery that makes him such a perfect frontman for this band. Everything about this band is well thought-out: image, sound, production, songs, lyrics, packaging...everything is in the
right place. Nice work.
But I do have ONE gripe which seriously prevented this disc from recieving 5 Stars...
This is a relatively short disc, only 9 songs in length and the choice of opening with 'Shut The F**k Up' and also making it a lead-off single could be death to this band straight from the gate, because seriously folks, SKID ROW did this type of thing more than 10 years ago and it sounded fresh and ooh...controversial. Don't try so hard to sound so angry, guys... it's not believable.
I honestly think this disc ROCKS in a MAJOR way. If you miss that old-school, Sunset Strip sound, the Brides deliver.
