Originally released in the States in November 2016, this debut has just gained a release in Europe through El Puerto Records. Here is a band that have already gained publicity before they had even played a note, as it has been put together by Alice Cooper bassist Chuck Garric (as guitarist, singer and head of the band) with vocalist Calico Cooper (daughter of said Alice). The line-up is completed by Christopher Latham (guitar), Jan Le Grow (bass) and Tim Husung (drums). So with two members being closely linked with Alice one might expect them to sound somewhat like him, and in some ways that is true, but it is very much the “Poison”-era as opposed to the classic, mixed with a very large dose of the American hair bands from the Eighties.
It is gruff, it is raw, but there is also an innate sense of melody behind it, and Motley Crüe has obviously been a major influence. There is a feeling that they are very much following the same vein, and their band photo shows a very rough and bedraggled looking bunch, when their music has far more melody and arena-style anthems than they would probably like to admit. The European version has been released with an additional song, a cover of “Born To Raise Hell” where Chuck does a reasonable impersonation of Lemmy, but it doesn’t have the force and power of the original. In many ways this is the problem, as they are quite good at what they are doing, and if they were onstage at a festival then I am sure that many fans of other bands would enjoy what they are doing, but possibly paying to go and see them could well produce quite a different result. This is an okay album, but they are going to have to lift their game a great deal to make them known, and not consistently being linked to Alice.
