Kamikaze Kings
Royal Renegades

The kings of kamikaze are back with a new album, it follows a few years after the debut that was released in 2012. The Germans are now a quintet but it is still the guy named Elmo that stands for the vocal parts. The cover isn’t very exciting but kind of telling of what style of music to expect from these guys, a gang of guys who seem to have a healthy distance and not taking themselves too seriously – a good image for a good live show I would expect, perhaps the three year wait for the new album was down to the band doing extensive live playing. But now they have entered the studio and recorded a new album, Royal Renegades is its name.

It is an album that feels familiar, not only to those who have hard the debut album but also to anyone that is familiar with the hardrock genre. It is hard rock music that goes straight to the point no unnecessary stuff, just strong and energetic songs that are designed to be easy to take to. Good modern production, it is a modern hardrock album. Creatively it is not particularly interesting because we have heard this all before so many times, but nevertheless it is a solid production and Elmo suits the style well with his vocal style. The one niggle one might have is the long playing time, with fourteen track and a playing time well over fifty minutes it can feel a tad on the long side I think.

It may be a bit long and it may be creatively uninteresting, but it is still a good album, fans of the genre will probably find it very great. I think that it is enjoyably to listen to but it tends to fade away from me, I loose interest after a while since the depth and the complexity is lacking, it feels more tuned to those who like simpler music and not really to those with the same taste in music as myself. Still, it isn’t bad or anything, I like the album and have listened to it quite a few times and the only real weakness I see is that I think the first track opens very poorly and isn’t a very good track. The rest of the tracks are quite strong so the album in itself is very solid, but maybe also a little bit unspectacular.

I think Kamikaze Kings does well, their music is probably best on stage and those who like that sort of thing will probably like this album. For me the highlight is the little quieter ending track that is sung in German, it breaks off nicely and shows a more interesting side of the band. In the end I think that this is an album you will like if you like this kind of music, it is well made and has many strong tracks and great energy, which is more or less what this genre is all about.

HHHHHHH