Review:(Un)Holy Headbangers!

   

Heavy rock isn’t dead, it’s just hiding out.  You don’t hear it that much on the radio these days (just what do we hear on the radio any more?).  But some of the genre’s top practitioners are still around, headbanging happily away.

Def Leppard misses Robert “Mutt” Lange, who in 1987 produced their 20-million-selling Hysteria, the band’s best (and best selling) album.  With Songs From The Sparkle Lounge, the band reaches for that pinnacle and falls short.  The album may be a bit of a mess, but it’s an entertaining one.  My better judgment tells me I should hate “Nine Lives,” the first single that inexplicably also features country singer Tim McGraw.  But I don’t, and I like the rest of the album too, although we’ve heard it all before.  The licks and the hooks and the singing are pure Def Leppard, they write pop songs that you can almost hear Sheryl Crow or Jon Bon Jovi crooning.  You gotta give these guys credit for flailing away, though.  They’ve put out the summer’s first mindless party album.

Iron Maiden perhaps unfairly gets lumped in with their gloomier brethren Black Sabbath and Metallica.  This riff-happy British band gets its umpteenth greatest-hits due on Somewhere Back In Time, a look back at their 1980s output.  Lead shrieker Bruce Dickinson can deliver tonsil-shredding vocals with the best of ‘em (think Dio), guitarist Dave Murray cooks up the riffs with pure punk-rock intensity and grinds power chords with a Tony Iommi-like grandeur.  Like Def Leppard, they’re not terribly original; still they are good high-speed fun.  If you plan to catch the band in concert this summer (possibly with your teenaged son, ahem), this is a good place to brush up on your Maiden.  NOTE: You can download the entire new album free (good for three listens) at their website on May 7. Check there for more info.

UPDATE: Someone pointed out to me I missed one … Whitesnake is back with their 10th studio album and first in more than a decade.  David Coverdale, our favorite David Coverdale imitator, airs out his pipes on eight rockers and a few power ballads.  Giving it a quick listen, I locked onto “Good To Be Bad,” which should rank among Whitesnake’s best.

MP3: Nine Lives by Def Leppard w/Tim McGraw

MP3: Children Of The Damned by Iron Maiden

MP3: Good To Be Bad by Whitesnake