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Rock Candy Records [release date: 07.10.22]
It might be exaggeration to describe Bang Tango’s music as a radically different take on Hair Metal, but it was certainly its own man.
The band, Joe Leste on vocals, Kyle Stevens and founder, Mark Knight on guitars recorded their debut, Psycho Cafe (1989) with Howard Benson producing. Benson went on to enjoy great success with many rock and metal bands. His influence here should not be underestimated.
So yes, it’s Hair Metal, just not as we know it. It smokes and smoulders, burning slowly, flaring brightly at the right times, and descending into darkness at others.
The whip smart ‘Attack Of Life’ smacks us in the face with Leste’s high pitched, Axl Rose/ Tom Keifer vocal style. Wiry guitars rumble and rhythms rock. It’s a great opener.
The band’s twin guitar dynamic reaches boiling point on ‘Someone Like You’. Released as a single, it hit the Billboard Top Fifty a glancing blow, peaking at No. 57, earning the band the unenviable accolade “one of the 10 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the Hair Metal Era” in the LA Times. Better one than none.
The dark, churning soundscapes elsewhere on the album frequently approach a kind of funky fever-pitch. ‘Love Injection’ and ‘Shotgun Man’, two stories of twisted relationships, really get the funk out.
This is yet another sparkling remaster … the twin guitar sound separation is especially impressive. And it even captures Leste’s stratospheric notes. No mean feat. ****
Review by Brian McGowan
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