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THOR
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 After
the comic-book power metal of last year’s thunderous “Beastwomen From
the Center of the Earth”, our favorite God of fuckin’ Thunder returns
with a more down n’ dirty – though no less insane- rock n’ roll record.
For “Against the World”, Thor teamed up with Streetwalkin’
Cheetah Frank Meyer and his shitkicking cowpunk band Sweet
Justice, and the result is a full-on, rockets red glare spectacle of
authentically American rock n’ roll action. And yes, I realize that Thor
is Canadian, never mind a Canadian who’s based his career on a character
from Norse mythology, but I’m telling you, this album is the perfect
summertime soundtrack for eating hot dogs, going to the drag races, and
beatin’ up Commies. Thor digs all the way back to his late 70’s glam-pop
days for Dolls-y, tambourine shaking rave-ups like “Creature
Feature” and the slinky “Glimmer”, and even further back for
the 60’s fuzz-punk sorority shakedown “Hard to Cry”. There’s a
snaky, Iggy-esque ballad (“Turn to Blue”), a fire-belching biker
metal stomper or two (“Easy Woman”, and the storming title track),
and an amazing, infectious 50’s style doo-wop (!) rocker, “Gonna Have A
Hard Time”. There’s all kinds of great rock n’ roll here, and even
though it flails wildly from one side of the rock spectrum to another,
none of it sounds forced. This is mostly because Thor is immortal, but
also because Sweet Justice is a white-hot band who seamlessly slip from
one genre to another at the whims of their muscle-bound boss like he’s
paying ‘em double overtime. Sure, it’s an oddball pairing, but so was
Felix and Oscar, and that turned out pretty great, right? Same thing here.
This is easily the most fun rock n’ roll superhero come-back album since
Billy Idol’s “Devil’s Playground”, and Billy can’t even bend steel
bars with his bare hands.
Listen to Thor on Sleazegrinder radio! |
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-Sleazegrinder |