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Pitch Black Records
by Craig Hartranft, 03.26.2012
Listening to the opening song, Get Ready, or even the second, Hellfire Rock, it may be easy to dismiss Germany's Hard Riot as another AC/DC clone. But you would be wrong. Their debut LP, Living On A Fast Lane is more melodic heavier rock, without necessarily dismissing the AC/DC influences.
I'm not sure what we're to infer from the band name; it's rather strange. What's a 'hard riot'? And the proper English language idiom would be, 'Living In The Fast Lane.' I suppose if you're living on a fast lane, you could get run over. Okay, so they can't get their English right, what about the music?
Excepting Michael Gildner's uneven, sometimes unsteady, vocals, Hard Riot delivers some good, even interesting, melodic hard rock. In other words, I like the music and could pass on Gildner. That's not to say he totally succumbs to mediocrity. He shines on the more mellow Nothing But You. And, if don't you care for clarity, he rocks out everywhere else.
But the music is key: Hard Riot can rock, and that's why the album deserves a better than average score. There's promise here. Best head banging numbers include Don't Need You, No Surrender (very catchy), Take Me Down, and Rock 'n Roll Outlaw. Check out Hard Riot.
Hard Riot could succumb to be another AC/DC clone, but they're more interesting than that. Living On A Fast Lane is better than average heavier melodic rock.
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