What’s in a name? Let’s face it; Superbutt is not the only band out there with a slightly ridiculous name. What about the Butthole Surfers? Alabama Thunderpussy? Revolting Cocks? It didn’t do them any harm after all! You wouldn’t say that it’s really done these guys many favours though, seeing as they’ve been on the scene for 10 years now, and four albums in their profile has not exactly been red hot. There’s always time for these things to change through, and with ‘You and Your Revolution’, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for these Hungarian rockers yet.
Superbutt play simple, dirty, no strings attached Rock & Roll, which is fine by me and it’s got to be said, they make a pretty damn good fist of it too. Opening track ‘Last Call’ features guest vocals from noted Swedish rap-rocking beanpole Zak Tell of Clawfinger fame, and it’s a high octane blast through some meaty and powerful riffs. The guitar has a nice dirty level of distortion although, with Tell’s voice dominating, it’s hard to think of this as anything other than a Clawfinger track. When Superbutt’s own Andras Voros contributes the vocals for the chorus, he displays a strong voice with a good melodic range. The guitars of Szabolcs Szucs and Zsolt Szentpeteri, (both of whom I’m going to have to bear in mind should I ever find myself playing Scrabble ever again), carry along at a nice pace and provide a real energy for what is a seriously solid start. Things take a bit of a sideswipe for ‘Killer’, which could easily be mistaken for a System of a Down song, given the bizarrely delivered whispered intro, interspersed with bursts of chugging guitar. This soon plays out into a swinging rock and roll number with a strong Clutch influence. One of the unusual things about this album is the bizarre little snippets between songs, like a gibbering child, foreign lounge singers and a random snippet of dialogue from ‘24’. This is all fine, and rather than breaking things up seems to add a good deal of character to the album as a whole.
The quality continually remains high, with ‘Figure’ in particular being a standout track, with a strong pounding rhythm section driving things along at a fast, but not frenetic pace. This is hard rock in a manner that fewer and fewer bands seem to turn their hands to these days, which is a shame, because this sort of music only gets old if you let it, and Superbutt manage to keep everything reasonably fresh and interesting, for the most part anyway. The beginning of ‘Lift Her’ could be lifted straight from QOTSA’s ‘Millionaire’, but thereafter it develops nicely into some hard bluesy rock, with Voros at times delivering such a strong vocal that it brings to mind JB of Grand Magus, a man I consider to be one of the finest singers around today. Other times here though he can sound like he’s trying to sing with a throat full of jelly. It makes for an interesting sound anyway.
After listening to ‘You and Your Revolution’, you can kind of see arguments for both sides as to why massive success seems to elude them save for their native country. Musically they are talented with some really good songs and catchy riffs, but bands of this style don’t seem to catch the imagination that often these days. There’s no real message about Superbutt. They aren’t trying to save the planet through veganism. They don’t blame their parents for not understanding them, or sing about a string of girls who are wonderful but never notice them, nor do they seem to desire the destruction of the world or the abolishment of Christianity. Basically, here are just a bunch of guys, not taking themselves too seriously, having fun and playing some good quality hard rock music. Where’s the audience for that these days? Apart from me?
http://www.myspace.com/superbutt
