Crazy Lixx – New Religion

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For their third album Sweden’s Crazy Lixx have firmly rooted themselves in late 1980s hard rock song writing there are elements of Bon Jovi, KISS and Skid Row (all of the period, rather than now) to be heard here, with the overwhelming sound of Def Leppard permeating all of it. One important difference however is that Crazy Lixx are still writing rock songs where Def Leppard appear to have given up. So this is a much harder prospect than anything the veterans have produced in recent years, and a lot more fun. Danny Rexon, now the only remaining original member of the band, has changed his sound on this album and is now so strongly reminiscent of Joe Elliott that even in cases like My Medicine, where there’s a healthy Extreme groove to the riffs, every song sounds like late-’80s Leppard. This is fine for the most part, but what’s missing is the heavy, sleazy groove of tracks like Hell Or High Water, where Rexon sounded more like Sebastian Bach, which broke up the Leppard-isms on Loud Minority. The loud, fun rock ‘n’ roll feel of this album is surprisingly refreshing, but the same thing on every track (apart from the strangely out-of-place chicken-picking instrumental Desert Bloom) starts to get old before the album is done, and right down the back vocals on the choruses, escaping the feeling that this is a Def Leppard album is impossible.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2010, Albums, Hard Rock, Quick.Play Reviews, Crazy Lixx