Walking With Monsters

A Swiss rockabilly combo, the Hillbilly Moon Explosion exists in a middle ground between the traditionalism of many rockabilly revival bands and the rougher, spookier sound of psychobilly. Founded by vocalist and rhythm guitarist Emanuela Hutter and bassist and vocalist Oliver Baroni, their music has more than its share of retro twang with Hutter's polished, enigmatic singing blending with the sometimes raucous, sometimes moody guitar lines, and they add dashes of punk, lounge pop, country, and even ska to season the evocative mix.

All six of the albums Hanoi Rocks made in their original incarnation – Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks, Oriental Beat, Self Destruction Blues, Back to the Mystery City, Two Steps from the Move, and All Those Wasted Years – are packaged together, one album to one CD, in this straightforward six-CD set. There are no extras, just the albums as they were originally released, though there's a 12-page booklet with a solid history of the band and numerous (if small) reproductions of sleeves from their original releases. It's too much at once even for many fans, but for the more dedicated of that lot, it's a handy encapsulation of their primary recorded work. Hearing all of it does make it clear that, although they're often classified as a heavy metal band, they might be more accurately pegged as a hard rock band with substantial traces of glam and pop (and even some bar band blues-rock) along with the metal.