Album review: 42 DECIBEL – Overloaded

42 DECIBEL – Overloaded

SPV/Steamhammer [Release date 23.06.17]

When a band lists their influences as pretty much “Aussie Rock”, there’s no mistaking what’s going to be in that tin. And whaddya know…? Ditties about venereal disease, booze, loose women and fighting abound on the second offering from Argentina’s 42 Decibels. All cranked out with an unabashed and shameless pilfering of the early AC/DC/Rose Tatoo formula of simple, down-to-earth boogie rock.

Apparently, rock concerts and leaf blowers can emit 115dB and you shouldn’t stay near one for more than 30 seconds – by the same measure, 42 Decibels is about half the noise emission of a bulldozer (and you can fairly safely hang near one of those for four hours – if you wanted to).

Am I waffling ?….Yeah, a bit. Just trying to expand on the first paragraph…and struggling. If you can’t get enough of Bon Scott’s sneering vocals, then young Mr. Junior Figueroa on guitars and vocals is yer man – a dead ringer, if ever there was one. It suits the music but honestly, I’m not sure he could carry a tune if he had a bucket with a lid on it. Who cares, right? It’s all about attitude….

Other than that, the approach is about as simple as a Trump voter’s philosophy class and simple is often the business but you gotta have the songs. And that’s really where Overloaded falls down. If you were down the Frog and Chisel one night drinking pints of Buenos Aires’ equivalent of Wobbly Bob and this lot came on, you’d have a blast, I’m sure of it. But as I listened through, I couldn’t help thinking that this has all been done before – a lot, and with better, catchier songs.

No disrespect to the guys – played right, this stuff still gets you in the groin because it’s dirty rock and roll. They’re probably big fish in a little pond in Argentina and there’s nothing wrong with that but, globally, the competition is brutal and are the fish are much bigger… ***

Review by Mark “Mad Dog” Shaw


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