February 19, 2018

Crucified Barbara - In The Red (2014)

Country: Sweden
Language: English
Genre: Hard Rock
Label Number: DZCD044
.FLAC via Florenfile
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© 2014 Despotz Records
Review by Marcus Kemp for Metle-Temple.com
You know, I’ve never been a fan of female fronted bands as I have mainly listened to a lot of male fronted bands with the only exception being the American Hard Rockers that are HALESTORM which is fronted by LZZY HALE with the other members in the band all being males. Here, with CRUCIFIED BARBARA, we get an all female band where they combine Heavy Metal with Hard Rock and if you think that creates a recipe for either awesomeness or a recipe for disaster, you could be right on one of those but which one is it? A recipe for awesomeness or a recipe for disaster? Time to dive into this review and find out. Firstly, I will immediately say that because this band are from Europe, I am going to give them points for that as I love European bands. What makes me like them even more is that they are from Sweden which has produced some great bands and artists including W.E.T., WORK OF ART, ECLIPSE, and TALISMAN to name a few. Stockholm in Sweden seems to be the main base of operations for great Swedish bands and that is where CRUCIFIED BARBARA hail from. Formed in 1998, the band started out with as a 5 piece band but their previous singer JOEY NINE, provided vocals for their only demo tape “Fuck You Motherfucker” in 2001 before stepping down in 2003. Lead guitarist MIA COLDHEART stepped up to the lead mic after JOEY NINE’s departure and has been the voice of the band ever since. This fresh new line-up has so far recorded 8 singles and 4 studio albums with the fourth being their newest “In The Red” which is due for a September 10th 2014 release and that is the focus of this review. Before listening to this album, I went and had a listen to their previous album “Midnight Chase” from 2012 and needless to say it was an instant like as I got a HALESTORM vibe listening to it and I am getting that same vibe with the new CD “In The Red” which is a good start. The album clocks in at 40 minutes long spanning across 11 tracks starting off with the headbanging “I Sell My Kids For Rock N’ Roll” followed by the single “To Kill A Man” and then after that, 9 more tracks of electric Swedish excellence comes to kick you in the balls including “The Ghost Inside”, “Lunatic #1”, “Shadows” and “Finders Keepers”. That is exactly what I expect from a great Hard Rock or Heavy Metal record and if it doesn’t do that then frankly it is a pointless object but fortunately that is not the case here with “In The Red”. I don’t even know how their previous singer JOEY NINE sounded but it’s clear continuing as a 4 piece band with lead guitarist MIA COLDHEART taking over and singing lead vocals while still shredding lead guitar was a smart choice as she not only has some seriously awesome shredding skills as a guitarist but also some pretty awesome pipes as a singer as well. Sure you may not be able to hear the words at times but then with the amount of energy pouring from this record into your ears, that doesn’t really matter as it’s the delivery of the vocal performance that amazes you. The second half of this great album kicks off with the title track “In The Red” and a title track needs to be awesome and kick your ass in order to be worthy of being called a title track and that’s what this song does here. If it’s good enough to kick my ass then it’s certainly good enough to kick yours. You know, I was expecting a lot of great things from this album what with the genre being a combination of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal and the fact the band are from Sweden which is in Europe which has always been a hotbed for great music talent. I am happy to report that I am not let down or disappointed as my expectations have been met but the big question is, does combining Hard Rock and Heavy Metal into one album equal a recipe for awesomeness or a recipe for disaster? Well, it certainly ain’t a recipe for disaster that’s for sure as like I mentioned earlier, I am picking up HALESTORM vibes with this band and their music and that is exactly what the new CRUCIFIED BARBARA album “In The Red” does for me. From the opening track “I Sell My Kids For Rock N’ Roll”, to the single “To Kill A Man”, the ass kicking “In The Red” and the closing number “Follow the Stream”, this is an album that is guaranteed to get your heart pounding and get you rocking your socks off to every track and constantly spamming your replay button on your computer, phone, MP3 player, CD player and so on until you’ve decided enough is enough but with an album like this, you’ll never want to stop listening and that of course is a good thing which is an excellent note to end this review on.

tags: crucified barbara, in the red, 2014, flac,

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