Anyone remember Dollface?
Thought not. 1990s indie/pop/metal hybrid who produced one album 'Giant' to critical acclaim and public indifference before disappearing (though did I imagine seeing their name recently way down on some festival bill?). I actually love that album. Yep, I'm the one.
Never a good start to a review when you mention another band straight off but honest that's the name that just popped into my head twenty seconds into the first song on 'Krankenhaus' by these punk metal black 'n' rollers'. So a sharper Dollface maybe, rock definitely but metal punk? Oh they have the look; kind of like the young Wildhearts after staring too long at Turbonegro and you can imagine them slinging their guitars somewhere around their knees but this is actually a more restrained affair overall. Certainly not Mongo Ninja or their ilk.
Racy but often light guitar lines nicely delivered drive the opener, with some slightly slurred vocals adding a little bite to it and the arse end of that song goes into thirty seconds of pseudo-BM/grind noise as though its just had a bowel spasm.
'London' comes on in a pretty simlar vein: nice sound and with a fine energetic air to it and 'definitely there but not too heavy' guitar work before I had another double take. The chorus of 'Nervous', I swear to God, reminds me of David Essex and 'I'm Gonna Make You A Star' (for those of you old enough to have sisters who terrorised you with that sort of thing as a child). Maybe its deliberate with the lyrics making many circus allusions, but with an added pinch of the guitar slashing riffs. Weird. Inventive and quite catchy also with that jangly jagged 70s guitar pop edge.
When the Lydia Laska lads do crank up the guitars a little of the (sadly missed) Babylon Whores-esque thrashy Death Rock attack does snap at you, but the song style is so very different; no lyrics were provided but what you make out come across more real world from the gutter point of view which are nicely delivered by Candy Whorehole (!) in a slurred, slightly nasal sore throat style.
Krankenhaus itself (I think it means 'Hospital') is a similar vein of indie/metal guitar and really does raise the ghost of Swervedriver's masterful riff and atmosphere from 'Son Of Mustang Ford' all those years ago.
'Anti-Ortiz' then really sticks the boot in harder with some great guitar sounds and pissed off vocals in a well rounded punky attack.
Unfortunately just when my brain was getting up for it and I thought I had a cracker on my hands, the album seems to lose both rudder and engine: 'Can I Have A Go On Your Girl, Please' fails to live up to the promise of the title and it just drifts for me. Then 'No Lids' fails to raise my mood either. Sewerbed is a noisy tantrum of real punk clatter at last but more filler than not. The closer "It Never Ends" bounces along on its upfront baseline and sparse guitar some heavily affected vocals harking back to 78-79 times before the noisy riff-and-chorus churns it up and adds some horn sounds too in an hint of 2-Tone! It kind of fails to resurrect the fun of the first half though as it’s all a bit shapeless.
Krankenhaus is a rare confluence of influences to be sure but as this is MTUK not Indie Influenced Trash Rock UK I do struggle to see its niche here. If you do fancy something different and you do like the idea of those 90s attempts at melding a jagged but less heavy metal punk sound to a hard indie edge, like the aforementioned Dollface, or Skyscraper or even early Swervedriver and the Wildhearts I guess then the first half of this album is certainly going to entertain. It is a bit of a gem for that moment.
The problem is that all the other bands I mentioned had choruses to die for and lyrics that were all (depending on the band) mystery, bitterness, darkness or humour to pull you into their world. They also had a definite sense of purpose. For me something of all that is missing from the rest of this album after the midway point and an inability to pick out most of the lyrics which often carry this kind of music into deeper emotional territory hobbles it further.
Sorry, I'm floundering and I know it: I am not familiar with their back catalogue but I can only assume that if they ever really fitted their 'Black 'N' Roll tag then this is a departure for them. There is a brash talent here, sparking energy and some brave ideas trying more or less successfully to meld the musical styles together and it would make a more than decent trash rock EP.
If indie pop laid on top of metal punk sounds like a good thing then check them out certainly, and I am going to keep an eye on them as I suspect their commercial prospects should be good with a bit of a push.
Unfortunately for me the main success at the moment was probably getting me to dig out that Dollface album and also to listen again to Swervedriver's 'Son Of Mustang Ford'.
http://www.myspace.com/lydialaska
