Ain’t no sleaze like the old sleaze
Ok, yeah we know what it its like.
You’re a kid and you hear something great on the radio. You play it to your dad and he says: “yeah, it just sounds like Led Zeppelin….” It used to happen MV a lot in the 1980s.
But like that great philosopher Tommy Keifer once said: “the more things change, the more they stay the same” so it was with some degree of old bloke smugness that we listened to Sister’s new one.
Because fast forward ten years from the mid-1980s being ruined by parents who had it all first, and this reviewer was in the throes of a torrid musical affair with all things sleazy. It helped it if it was Scandinavian – this wasn’t a must as our love for the work of US filthbags like Crank County Daredevils proved – but if it sounded dirty and dangerous then, we were on board.
It would be cool to think that the four reprobates who make up Sister (and who go by names like Tim Tweak and Cari Crow) were in the same record clubs as us, because crikey it doesn’t half sound like they were.
“Stand Up, Forward, March” is proof that genres may come and genres may go, but music is the same as it ever was. It kicks off with “Destination Dust” which begins with a scream, packs in a mighty chorus and does that thing that Slash’s guitar always used to circa “Appetite For Destruction” – all before the first couple of minutes are over.
Punk rock and metal in the way that early Motley Crue was, if the opener isn’t enough to get you looking for your Spandex pants, then “Carved In Stone” probably will. Essentially because it boasts a hook so huge that it’s like taking a wrecking ball to a Wendy House.
The feeling that is just hedonistic fun, is rather re-enforced by a line in its lyrics: “you’ll pray for mercy to whatever gets you off” sings Jamie Anderson, and this is the soundtrack to whatever night you feel like letting go.
It is worth saying that “….March” isn’t some retro bullshit made by a load of blokes who should know better, “Lost In Line” for example adds some modern flourishes to its work, nor is it a one paced waste of time. Indeed, “Carry On” is a ballad-ish thing, which has more than an echo of Backyard Babies.
Largely, though, this is about slammers. “Unbeliever” might do a kind of power metal fists in the air power metal, but it knows where its bread is buttered too, and when they do let things breathe a little, like on “Let It Bleed” it is only so they can make things even more ominous than they were.
For our money, though Sister work better when its about balls out rock n roll, like “Dead Man’s Dirt” and the positively punk rock nihilism of “Piece Of Shame” which ends things. Not only does it suggest that “I’m too perfect to die” it also screams – with no hint of irony “you think you’re so cool, why don’t you just fuck off?!”
Like some dad back in the day we might have heard that one before, but it’s so easy (see what we did there?) to like “Stand Up, Forward, March” that you barely notice.
Rating 7.5/10
