HardReviews 5
by Martin Popoff
Nashville Pussy - Get Some!
(Spitfire)Been out for a bit, but it's been hangin' around my player jes' refusing to be filed until a hollerin' match was had. And certainly, Blaine is yelling, screeching and howling like hell on a stick all over this typical Nashville Pussy spread. New bassist in Karen Cuda, but the sound is the same, a regular rock that cuts through any electrical adversity live but sounds a little too simple on record. The redneck booklet read's as good as always, and methinks booze would help these predictable-on-purpose chord patterns, but I dunno... I mean, this worked for Kiss in the '70s, but we were all 12. Not saying you gotta be 12 to jump around to this, but I'd say you'd have to at least be fearless in the face of hangovers, which puts the plug in at about 28.
Rating 6.5Bronx Casket Co. - Hellectric
(Regain/Candlelight)Three records in and DD Verni's cadaverous side biz Bronx Casket Co. are really coming into their own, shapeshifting past the two perfectly delicious and dark predecessors into a sound that is artfully and complexly seductive. Strengths are many, most obvious being the gothic croon of Spy (the band's least "famous" member), the guy pulling down the nightshade on all sorts of metal touchstones (yes, even Messiah!), his cheekiness matching the Hammer horror of the Verni's musical Munsters bloodride. Keyboards from garage through psych to '90s goth help with alertness at the corners, movie samples warn of butcherings, but each song would have no problem standing alone (possibly even passing the lone acoustic guitar test), given Verni's sure grasp of the concept. Weirdly, through all this, Hellectric is effortlessly commercial, Verni going for rock angles and level-headed rock velocities, except for a goliath sludge metal roil through Freebird, which takes nine minutes to die. It's sort of like White Zombie on analog, with a way better singer, as well as sturdier, stickier choruses. Damn, a cool band from the very start, now three records, gets more rockist, but pulls it off be-draped by charm.
Rating 8
