Lawless
Rock Savage
Escape Music
2013
This is a pretty funny little album. It seems that, with their normal bands NWOBHM heavyweights Persian Risk and Demon not really doing too many gigs throughout the year, the boys that comprise Lawless sorta decided to come up with some extracurricular work to fill up the empty spots in the calendar! Going for a sound that’s pretty much modern melodic rock that occasionally gets just a little heavier, Lawless are quite an interesting band that seems able to come up with the goods easily, song after song.
“Heavy Metal Heaven” has some nifty riffs and a lot of cool melodies, but the chorus, while it’s kinda cool, is kinda daft, lyrically – you know – this sort of “metal” is so great… sort of lyric is toe curling and kinda overdone. But what absolutely stands out from the very start apart from the bands AWESOME performances is Paul Hume’s AMAZING vocal performance. He’s sort of wasting himself in Demon, “only” assuming the role of a guitarist so here he’s found a way to shine, in another department, beside the six strings.
“Black Widow Ladies” is a slower and sexier number, much nastier and darker, that immediately gets under your skin and for some reason got me, into a very Whitesnake meets Blue Murder mode. Pure effin – AWESOMENESS.
“F.O.A.D” standing for you know what… is a hard hitting song, very reminiscent of Dokken in their Prime. Oh by the way, it’s not full of vulgarities as you might expect hahahaha, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not every bit as cool, as you might expect.
“Misery” is a more melodic, mid tempo song, with a very nice lead and quite nice build.
“SOS” is a big “arena-type” power ballad, that a lot of the big names of the yesteryears, would kill to have written these days... unfortunately Lawless did it, and I don’t think it’s going to do them much good, unless they find a magical way to make a lot of ears tune into it...
“Rock ‘n Roll City” is an anthemic type of song, very much like HMH, if only a little more melancholic I guess, overall, this one, but overall much much better.
“Step In” seems to have been dropped into this album by mistake, as it’s a sort of a hair metal anthem, done in such a way, that it both sounds “wrong” and it also, sounds out of place with the rest of the songs in the album.
“Scream” thankfully sorts out the mishap rather quickly. It’s a slow and sensual number about some ladyship that makes the “hero” holler, complete with slow and screaming guitars…
Hot on its heels “Pretender” revs up the engines and gets things into the relative “red”... while maintaining a good balance of melody as well. It has a certain degree of pomposity as well however that makes it quite interesting.
“Where Heroes Fall” is an epic ballad, with great atmosphere. Hume delivers some amazing lines and guitar playing along with Howie G. and it’s songs like those that really make you proud of the given genre....
Oh talking of which… there’s a humorous intro to “Metal Time” the final song to the album… which is a bit shitty, as a song, but it’s a bit of a funk-you anthem – a two finger salute at the establishment and a hail to all things heavy metal! It’s a tiresome tirade, I know, blame Manowar for all of these songs, but this one’s kinda funny, with all the Sfx and all and in a way it reminded me a bit of Van Halen... hahaha!
Lawless’s debut is actually pretty effing cool. Coming out on Escape music, it’s impact, will expectedly be limited and there have also been some reports of some bad business practices by the said company from more than a couple of sources, as of late... which is kind of sad as I remember them as being decent folks with a good ear for music. Nonetheless Lawless is still solid, through and through and should do well. I wish them the best.
“Heavy Metal Heaven” has some nifty riffs and a lot of cool melodies, but the chorus, while it’s kinda cool, is kinda daft, lyrically – you know – this sort of “metal” is so great… sort of lyric is toe curling and kinda overdone. But what absolutely stands out from the very start apart from the bands AWESOME performances is Paul Hume’s AMAZING vocal performance. He’s sort of wasting himself in Demon, “only” assuming the role of a guitarist so here he’s found a way to shine, in another department, beside the six strings.
“Black Widow Ladies” is a slower and sexier number, much nastier and darker, that immediately gets under your skin and for some reason got me, into a very Whitesnake meets Blue Murder mode. Pure effin – AWESOMENESS.
“F.O.A.D” standing for you know what… is a hard hitting song, very reminiscent of Dokken in their Prime. Oh by the way, it’s not full of vulgarities as you might expect hahahaha, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not every bit as cool, as you might expect.
“Misery” is a more melodic, mid tempo song, with a very nice lead and quite nice build.
“SOS” is a big “arena-type” power ballad, that a lot of the big names of the yesteryears, would kill to have written these days... unfortunately Lawless did it, and I don’t think it’s going to do them much good, unless they find a magical way to make a lot of ears tune into it...
“Rock ‘n Roll City” is an anthemic type of song, very much like HMH, if only a little more melancholic I guess, overall, this one, but overall much much better.
“Step In” seems to have been dropped into this album by mistake, as it’s a sort of a hair metal anthem, done in such a way, that it both sounds “wrong” and it also, sounds out of place with the rest of the songs in the album.
“Scream” thankfully sorts out the mishap rather quickly. It’s a slow and sensual number about some ladyship that makes the “hero” holler, complete with slow and screaming guitars…
Hot on its heels “Pretender” revs up the engines and gets things into the relative “red”... while maintaining a good balance of melody as well. It has a certain degree of pomposity as well however that makes it quite interesting.
“Where Heroes Fall” is an epic ballad, with great atmosphere. Hume delivers some amazing lines and guitar playing along with Howie G. and it’s songs like those that really make you proud of the given genre....
Oh talking of which… there’s a humorous intro to “Metal Time” the final song to the album… which is a bit shitty, as a song, but it’s a bit of a funk-you anthem – a two finger salute at the establishment and a hail to all things heavy metal! It’s a tiresome tirade, I know, blame Manowar for all of these songs, but this one’s kinda funny, with all the Sfx and all and in a way it reminded me a bit of Van Halen... hahaha!
Lawless’s debut is actually pretty effing cool. Coming out on Escape music, it’s impact, will expectedly be limited and there have also been some reports of some bad business practices by the said company from more than a couple of sources, as of late... which is kind of sad as I remember them as being decent folks with a good ear for music. Nonetheless Lawless is still solid, through and through and should do well. I wish them the best.