Bulletboys - Elefanté

Bulletboys Elefanté cover
Bulletboys
Elefanté
Cleopatra Records
2015
4.5
Bulletboys were a second tier hair metal band, which made waves late back in the day coming towards the tailend of things just before things imploded rather spectacularly... and their contract with a multinational disappear faster than you could say their name – after Nirvana made it big. They did stay active and released several more albums, changing the line-up to occasionally include former and future G’nR members and changed companies, almost for all subsequent albums.
 
Nowadays featuring only Marq Torien from the a one-time Ratt and King Kobra member, that has switched between guitar and vocals... they seem to have severely changed to adapt to the modern scene’s more alternative style thus coming up with a more modern sounding sleazy sound with poor vocals sounding like a poor man’s Hinder, or a severely bastardized version of themselves.
 
On “Elefanté” the bands tenth (?!) album, things are not as memorable, as they used to be all the way back in 1988. “Rollover” and “Tusnami” pass all loud but uneventful...
 
“Symphony” begins like a ballad, before it has this more rocking part, that’s too fickle and poppy, but not in the best possible way...
 
In “The Villain” they try a bit harder, but the vocals sound like a bad, tuned version of Vince Neil, with a bad case of the flu... which really, is telling. Torien was never some amazing sort of vocalist, but his limited capability was somewhat masqueraded in those older rich, spectacular productions (not to mention he was like 20 odd years younger and time doesn’t seem to have been such a good friend to his vocal chords).
 
“Kin Folk” has this Poison meets Aerosmith vibe, but sounds a bit out of climate...
 
“Saving You from Me” is actually pretty good, even if it procrastinates, before blasting the chorus over, but makes you wish Torien was a better vocalist.
 
Having said that, in “As Dumb As”… MT, sings in a somewhat different, cleaner way, which makes it apparent that his problem is actually that of a severely diminished range, which already wasn’t much to speak of. Sounding a bit like Josh Todd, but even worse, ain’t something to brag about.
 
“Superhuman Girl” is by the numbers, 90s sleaz-o-grunge, with a decent enough chorus, but very boring verses...
 
“Drop Your Weapon” drop a nice groove, but does not have much else going on for it.
 
“Bitch is Back” is a cleaner sounding song, which evens the keel somewhat, but wouldn’t compete for a friggin’ award… if you know what I mean... the faux synthetic trumpets are funny though and a nice touch… and the album closes with its namesake track, a bizarre riffoid outro, that is heavy as it would have you think, but wastes a nice enough idea for no apparent reason…
 
Not worth breaking a sweat, but then again, some people might be interested in BB’s 2015. I just couldn’t count myself as one of ‘em.