SPV/Steamhammer [Release date 20.04.18]
This is the sixth album from Swedish rockers Bullet and it really depends on your bag….if you’re into Accept-cloned, dandruff-shifting riff and roll, then “Dust To Gold” (and probably the other five) are for you. Not a huge amount of variety here – it’s the standard “riff, scream, solo, rinse and repeat” formula.
Some decent riffs in this collection thought it’s hard to see how Bullet rises above the commoditized crowd of manic Scandinavian metallers. Saxon and others have been doing this stuff for years but rose to prominence when there wasn’t an endless plethora of other bands doing the same thing and, therefore, the barrier to entry was arguably lower (plus Saxon wrote some damn fine songs).
Beer festivals are great but at the end of the day, it’s all beer – with minor variations on themes of flavour, brewing methods and alcohol content. If you love beer, you can spend the weekend at a festival and have a blast….drinking beer.
From several plays of “Dust To Gold”, I felt like I’d been dropped into a silo of….beer – everywhere I looked, I saw beer and nothing but beer which was okay because I like beer but after a while, the constant belches and hiccups start to grate.
We live in an on-demand world where we have access to everything, right now. What that means is that quality rises to the top and gets traction and unless something grabs you in the opening minute, you’re swiping on to the next one and you probably don’t swipe back.
Stacks of music comes across the desks of GRTR! Whether reviewers or fans, you’re always hoping for the hook, the lightening-in-a-bottle moment, like that crazy fan who just gets so overwhelmed with joy at a gig that they have to rise above the crowd on their mates shoulders – that moment didn’t get me on “Dust to Gold”, nothing to lift it above the crowd.
That said, if just being in the crowd and drinking beer is what gets you through the night and you still have a poster of Udo Dirkschneider on your bedroom wall – check out Bullet for some Scandi-screamy, if formulaic, riff-metal. ***
Review by Mark “Mad Dog” Shaw
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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)
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