Dead End Heroes
Roadkill

I suppose that the only thing you can eat as a hero in a dead end is something roadkilled. The band Dead End Heroes was given birth by accident, drummer Voegeli was attempting something of a solo album and running his stuff by guitarist/producer Rolf Munkes and all of a sudden there was a Lizard there and then an entire band who could go on tours and everything. Funny story, but that doesn’t really effect how I look at the album as I never read this stuff before listening. The press information ends by saying: ”sometimes… it just works!” bold statement, but is it true.

I guess that is in the eye of the beholder, it is what it is. The cover art isn’t the loveliest I have ever seen, it looks a bit drab to be honest. Musically I have seen all reviewers resort to excessive namedropping, just like we see in the press sheet. Deep Purple, Krokus, MSG, Whitesnake, and a whole lot more are loosely thrown around when trying to describe this album. Not very helpful for the one who have not heard any of these bands or any of the many that the members have been in. It is classic hardrock, eighties styled with a touch of late seventies. Hammond organs, rocking riffs, a classic rock vocalist with a coarse voice that suits this style of music in great way. I like this vocalist. The production is a modernised version of the stuff we often heard in the early eighties. Decent variation over the tracks, not overly much as this style rarely accommodate much in terms of variation.

Good album, good songs, great vocals, great energy, there is a lot to like about this album. It is easy to take in, you like from the first time you play it. Later you see that it is a bit one dimensional and lacks the depth so there is nothing more to discover the more you listen to it. They play the nostalgia card, they want to appeal to the ones who doesn’t think the world or music to progress too much, it seems as though their targeted audience are those afraid of change. Sure you will not be bored with or tired of the album fast as it is quite long so you listen to many songs each time and you tend to zone out parts of the album as its 57 minutes is a tad on the long side. But the album has no real weaknesses, it is a strong production and a likeable album especially for those of you who are into nostalgic rock.

I said no real weaknesses, no real highlights either. Sure you could mention tracks like Stormfront, The Fire’s Worth The Loneliness and Dead End Heroes are all interesting and good tracks. But they don’t really rise that much above the rest and nothing really stands out. I think this is a solid album and I am sure the songs will be excellent on the live stage, as records go I would say that it is a good listen but hardly something that will be written into the musical history books. Dead End Heroes offers more or less what can be expected from an album with that kind of cover art.

HHHHHHH