Crazy Lixx

HELL IN THE CLUB from Italy feature members of ELVENKING and SECRET SPHERE, from bands which play a totally different genre, though, but the songs delivered here on their fifth album to date are pure hard rock with lots of party attitude including hooks that can mostly be called anthems. CRAZY LIXX, CRASHDIET, (more recent) H.E.A.T. or even MÖTLEY CRÜE seem to have been major influences here. Luckily, the modern sounds – whatever this means – mentioned in the info sheet provided by the label can’t (hardly) be found at all. And “Lullaby For An Angel“ is a great ballad with a lot of eighties DNA. Nevertheless, there are a couple of songs which can’t fully meet the quality of highlights like the mentioned tracks or “Nostalgia“ and “Tokyo Lights“. A pretty solid album, though. An album with an honest and down-to-earth production which does want to sound perfect…

Metal Heaven has set a March 27 release date for "Pure", the first solo album from Swedish songwriter/producer/artist Chris Laney. The songs on the CD were all written by Laney with co-writers like Bruce Kulick (KISS, UNION, GRAND FUNK RAILROAD), Lennart Östlund (LED ZEPPELIN, THE ROLLING STONES, ABBA, GENESIS), Mats Levén (THERION, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN) and others. Laney sings all songs on "Pure", which includes appearances by guest musicians J. Koleberg (ANIMAL, ZAN CLAN), Nalle Pahlsson (TREAT, ANIMAL, ZAN CLAN), Vic Zino (HARDCORE SUPERSTAR), Martin Sweet (CRASHDIET) and Zinny Zan (EASY ACTION, SHOTGUN MESSIAH, ZAN CLAN)

Paying little attention to the extreme death metal sounds their hometown was renowned for, the four natives of Gothenburg, Sweden who formed Hardcore Superstar in 1998 drew upon melodic, glammed-up hard rock, especially the sleazy L.A. pop-metal sound of the '80s. Vocalist Jocke Berg, guitarist Silver Silver, bassist Martin Sandvik, and drummer Magnus Andreasson recorded an album titled It's Only Rock 'N' Roll and released via Gain Records in 1998, attracting praise from Motörhead's Lemmy. After opening for Motörhead on a Scandinavian tour, Hardcore Superstar signed with Music for Nations and recorded their sophomore effort, Bad Sneakers and a Piña Colada, in 1999.