Album review: EAT THE GUN – Howlinwood
SPV www.spv.de [Release date 28.08.15]
Who doesn’t love a good threesome ? German threesomes are even better – allegedly! Right from the almost QOTSA staccato-riff opening to title track “Howlinwood” (cool video too), I thought “’Allo, what have we here?”
Well, it turns out we have a spanking little gem from Munster, Germany with Eat The Gun’s fifth album “Howlinwood”. The pace is well and truly set with the first and second track one-two sucker punch as “Fallin’” continues the in-yer-face assault and puts a stake firmly in the ground. Power-pop is perhaps an over-used phrase but a loud and brash hook is much the same thing and Eat
The Gun have the back pockets of their lederhosen stuffed full of them. A brief listen to previous recordings (“Wake Me Up” and “Loner”) suggests that Eat The Gun have been honing their talent for writing big choruses over punk-driven riffs for some time and “Take It Away” sounds like that experience and endeavour is culminating nicely on this album.
“Electric Life” is a proper foot-stomper a la Foo Fighters and keeps the momentum going nicely. There is a real meat and potatoes feel to this album – tight, punk-edgy and very powerful stuff.
Having already played support to such acts as Die Toten Hosen, HIM, Danko Jones, Duff McKagan and The Backyard Babies, Eat The Gun can surely expect to be called into duty with bigger and better support slots on the evidence of this strong showing.
As I keep harping on about in other reviews, the art of song-writing is critical to differentiating one’s band from the competitive noise out there and Eat The Gun demonstrate throughout this album that they clearly have that knack.
Tidy, compact riffing pumps through the veins of Howlinwood with “The Drudge” tipping the hat (intentionally or not) to Social Distortion and album closer “Anger” shows they have some balladry about them too.
Absolutely no filler on this album – the good folks at GRTR! are very impressed… ****
Review by Mark “Mad Dog” Shaw
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
Next session: Sunday 19 January
Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio
David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 1 December 2024.
UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 3 December 2024.
How to Listen Live?
Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)
Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”
Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.
More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com
Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024
In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections
Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)
PDF - you can delete unwanted sections