Brides of Destruction – Runaway Brides

publisher

impulse buy

Mascot Records
Produced by Andy Johns

Since their debut last year and the subsequent tour the band have been pretty quiet. The talk of the new album has been creeping out for a while, with updates on the band’s official site from guitarist Tracii Guns at semi-regular intervals, but lineup confusion and the massive reunion of the original Mötley Crüe lineup taking away founding bassist Nikki Sixx has meant progress was understandably slow at times and for several months it was all very quiet.

First in late in 2004 Ginger of The Wildhearts joined the band, and left again less than a month later. This was the bands second attempt at having another guitarist/singer in the band. The first lineup originally included Ex-Mötley Crüe/Union vocalist and guitarist John Corabi, who left to pursue a solo career and be with his family. Then when Nikki left, the band were thrown into disarray again and were forced to recruit ex-Amen bassist Scott Sorry.

This album is a pretty neat 50/50 split. Half of the songs are very good. Half are not. None worse than the horrible Offspring-sounding single White Trash. A painfully mundane and simplistic riff, daft lyrics and Tracii Guns jumping up and down on his wah pedal for a lead break. Elsewhere following the completely pointless intro Aunt Biente, Lord of The Mind, Dead Man’s Ruin, Criminal and Brothers are excellent hard rocks songs. This Time Around and Porcelain Queen do well enough, but the closing trio of White Horse, Tunnel of Love and Dimes In Heaven let the side down somewhat. The high-speed punk of Blown Away is also poor, while Never Say Never is a pretty good rocker with an excellent chorus.

It has to be said, the overall feel of this album is not what was promised in the press release. “Utterly electrifying in the realms of Black Sabbath, The Sex Pistols and early KISS“, it says. “It has a great blend of modern rock heaviness and retro sounds and styles”, says Tracii. I don’t think so. This record is far too close to being a pop-punk album to ever be mentioned in the same breathe as Black Sabbath or KISS. Half hard rock, half punk this album doesn’t quite deliver the full package. The rock songs are good. The punk songs are not. This might have achieved three stars had it been half of an excellent album. But it’s merely half of a good album. Only Lord of The Mind, Dead Man’s Ruin, Criminal, Brothers and Never Say Never really show any quality. The Brides are trying to be far too commercial, and it lets them down. Maybe if Nikki Sixx had stayed it would have been different. Maybe not.

“ half of a good album ”

Tracklist: Auntie Biente / Lord of The Mind / Dead Man’s Ruin / Criminal / This Time Around / White Trash / Brothers / Never Say Never / Blown Away / Porcelain Queen / White Horse / Tunnel of Love / Dimes In Heaven

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Hard Rock, Brides of Destruction