Fun With Explosives: Their new album is called Death Rattle and Roll.
From the first song, there is a strong message that the music will be hard and fast and there will be some fun along the way. The music is a mix of hard rock with punk/crossover thrash. The vocals are excellently barked out with a barbwire edge to them by Leon Van Der Weyden and he really gives a good performance on this album, knowing when to bring the aggression and when to bring the slightly playful mischievous vocals providing one of the highlights of the recording.
Going back to the start of Death Rattle and Roll is important because this is where all the best bits are found. The first three songs Hook, Stand My Ground, and Rhyme or Reason is an excellent opening blast full of riffs, aggression, hooks, and melody and most definitely the best part of the album.
Stand My Ground is a truly great thrash metal song and along with its riff-laden partner Rhyme or Reason are my choice for standout songs.
The opening hook riff for Rhyme or Reason is an absolute killer, which had me reaching for the repeat button a few times.
Sean Witchery is the man to be congratulated for the opening riff on Rhyme or Reason and all the guitar work actually, giving a good performance throughout with a real hard edge, but clean easily digestible sound. Dave Smith on bass and Steve Smith on drums give that fast-paced tempo which they highlight with the track SFL, one of the more straight-out punk songs on here.
As good as the first three songs are means that I would have liked more of that for the rest of the album as I found a drop-off after those and the remaining songs being just ok but not brilliant and ear-grabbing. The musicianship is still good and they delivered the songs well as far as production, but just lacked a bit of creativity, definition, and playability with no real hooks or playability required for repeat listens. Piggy was good for the slightly playful nature of the song but I didn’t find myself desperate to listen to it again. These songs probably come off better live.
Death, Rattle, and Roll is a good album, with the great songs doing all the heavy lifting and I was entertained well enough but slightly underwhelming for the rest. People who are big fans of this style will probably love this. I liked it for a listen but probably wouldn’t go back to it much.
Fun With Explosives: Facebook
Release Year: 2013
Label: self-released
Category: Album
Country: Australia
Reviewed by Chris Rankin
