Bullets And Octane
In The Mouth Of The Young

THE REVIEW

On February 28th, it was the day of the only Italian date of the Avenged Sevenfold tour; my fearless friend and I endured 16 (sleepless) hours on the train, round trip, just to enjoy that evening.

Opening the show were these Bullets And Octane who, moreover, left an excellent impression on all attendees, myself included. However, don't think that the band in question sounds similar to the Sevenfold, because it's absolutely not the case. The Californians play a mix of hard rock and California-rooted punk, genuine and without frills.

So, intrigued by the Milan show and regardless of the cover showing a busty metal girl in her full glory, I decided to give a listen to this "In The Mouth Of The Young". First consideration: the tracks on the record sound extremely better live; that's the first thing I thought after listening to the record. All the album's tracks are very driving, raw and direct; no technical exaggerations, just some good old damn rock 'n' roll.

The most successful tracks are undoubtedly "My Disease", "Cancer California" and "Signed In Alcohol", coincidentally the ones that got the most applause live. Toward the end of the record, the tempo slows down a bit with "Bathroom Floor" and "All Hail Halo", but the distorted guitars are always there peeping out. The record is fundamentally all here, dirty and rotten like any rock 'n' roll record, but this shouldn't necessarily be seen as a bad thing; lately, it's been hard for me to find a record of the same genre that was worthy of ending up more than a couple of times in my CD player. "In The Mouth Of The Young" may fully respect all the clichés of a rock 'n' roll record, but it sounds fresh and enjoyable like few others recently. So, those who want to be lulled by music should abstain from listening, but those who want to rock out to some rough and honest rock are most welcome!

In this case, the most classic of "Jaggerian" quotes fits perfectly: "It's only rock 'n' roll, but I like it".