Hotel Diablo
Return to Psycho California

Don’t you think for a moment that we have expanded our reviews to also cover hotels, we don’t have that time. This album is the debut one of a band consisting of some guys from pretty well known bands and stuff, it has a distinct looking rock album cover which reminds me of something or maybe it doesn’t. They return to Psycho which was also their first release once, an EP and now they return to that place again to make a debut album. Now I have looked at this album for a while, I have also interviewed the band so keep your eyes peeled for an interview in the next day or so.

It is musically straight ahead classic rock with energy but still quite melodic and with more depth than you might expect at first glance. The songs are also quite varied in style with most being energetic but there are some calmer ones as well, a bit ballady just to fill that space as well. The production is good, the sound is modern and holds a lot of power while still being quite polished in terms of sound. The album is short and to the point with a playing time of 42 minutes it feels like it ends in a relatively quite manor. There are eleven tracks on the album if you count them, two of which are alternative versions of other tracks on the album.

So, is it worth a visit this Hotel Diablo? I would say so, the girls working there are not really clad and the lighting is in a red tone. It is also very nice with the energy and the collection of very good songs and the fact that there isn’t anything really negative about this album either. Sure you could point your finger at the fact that they use two songs twice in alternate versions but, as the alternate versions feels more or less like new songs it becomes less of a negative. So in general this hotel surely deserves many stars on the hotel rating scale, in a way it is a bit like the Hotel California as it is very hard to leave but you can still do it if you want to but I am not really that sure you would want that.

I would say that all the songs are good on this album, like the opening Taken, the fourth track Psycho California and the fifth Bury You are well worth mentioning as they are really good. To that I should add my personal favourite the second track All These Years which I find excellent. Another one worth mentioning is the Oasis cover Wonderwall which might not be the best one or even close to that but it is a great cover and it is a song that fits very well into the complete picture of this album. But all the songs on this album are very good, there isn’t any that feels like a disappointment or like it is decreasing the average quality of this album.

In the end we could say: "Welcome to the Hotel Diablo, such a lovely place, such a lovely face. They Livin’ it up at the Hotel Diablo, what a nice surprise, bring your alibis… and you can check out any time you like but you can never leave…" well that about sums it up with some lyrics from one of the best songs ever written. There are some songs near that caliber on this album as well, I can assure you that it is an addictive album that will be hard to just drop. Buy it, you’ll like it!