I’m going to take you back to a time before grunts, growls and blast beats became acceptable in the metal world, before panda-faced aural terrorists scared everyone to death with their blasphemous noise, and even before whiney bands from Seattle poured out their teenage angst to world. We’re going back to a time where men were men, hair was big, trousers were tight (and probably leather or spandex) and all songs contained the words `womaaan’ and `tonight!’
Finely tanned and coiffured Germans Soul Doctor are all about the rock – with song titles such as `Love Crashed Down’ and `Take It While It’s Hot’ it’s pretty obvious what to expect! The band in its various incarnations has a seriously impressive list of support slots to hard rock royalty, such as Alice Cooper, Axel Rudi Pell, Dio and Kingdom Come – and these guys really do wear their hearts, and their influences on their glittery sleeves. It’s sometimes hard to believe that `Way Back To The Bone’ is a new release, and not an album from the mid-80’s.
Opener `First Man On The Moon’ starts with a psychedelic and mysterious intro before bursting into a riff that sounds rather familiar (Isn’t that `Kashmir’ by Led Zeppelin? Very close indeed I would say!) The song itself has an extremely Zeppelin-style stomp, and proceeds to rock out accordingly. There is a subtle layer of keyboard which adds extra class to the proceedings, along with some finely multi-layered vocal harmonies to beef up the gigantic, catchy chorus. This is rawk with a capital R – one thing that brings it home to the listener that this is an album from 2009 and not 1985, is the very satisfying, chunky guitar sound – the result of modern equipment and production values. In fact the production of the entire album is solid and crystal clear – and quite likely to gets heads nodding in appreciation.
On to track two - `Lightning and Thunder’… Hold on – surely that’s `All Right Now’ by Free? Ah no, almost… and again we are treated to another hard rockin’ anthem, complete with catchy chorus, gutsy riffing and stomping rhythms that sound just a little like one or two other bands (Whitesnake to name just one that very often springs to mind).
Anyway, it’s easy to knock a band for lack of originality – many thousands of bands are also guilty of the same musical crimes. The main question is though; does it do the job? In my opinion, this album does indeed rock hard – the members are obviously all very skilled at their various instruments as there is not a duff note, or amateur-sounding moment anywhere on the album. The wonderfully-named Tommy Heart has a great, powerful voice, and belts out songs of bad relationships and broken hearts without a trace of a German accent, rather like a Teutonic David Coverdale. The songs are stomping, catchy and enjoyable – if you ignore the lack of originality and take the songs on their own merits, and if you’re a fan of classic hard rock, you are likely to enjoy this album.
www.souldoctorrocks.com
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