Chrome Division
Doomsday Rock'N Roll

Raise your hand if you don't know AC/DC and Motorhead there among you, bunch of ugly and smelly rockers getting by on beer, Harley Davidson, and beautiful women (or "donnacce" as it would be better said in this specific case). Now, raise your hand if you know, mind you this time there is no "don't," Dimmu Borgir, come on, the ones who made melodic black metal a mainstream genre and who have sold over a million copies worldwide, becoming one of the most famous metal bands; do you all know them? All of you?? Okay, then we can start the review.

Now, some of you might wonder why I mentioned three musically disparate bands in the preface, well the answer is simple: Motorhead and AC/DC were named since this album draws its greatest inspiration from those two bands, especially the former. Dimmu Borgir was mentioned because the group we are discussing, oh by the way, they're called Chrome Division, is nothing but a side-project of Mr. Dimmu Borgir Shagrath, this time in the role of guitarist, alongside whom appear on bass Bjorn Luna from Ashes To Ashes, Eddie Guz on vocals, Ricky Black on guitar and Tony White, ex Antestor, One Man’s Child and Minas Thirit, on drums.

So, let's just say that while this "Doomsday Rock ‘N Roll" is a fun album, well-played (as one would expect given the names involved), with a production worthy of the most expensive pop records, it is also a truly unoriginal platter, where one cannot speak of influences, but I would rather opt for the term “continuous plagiarism” by Shagrath who, yes, proves capable of interpreting an unfamiliar style more than decently (though it is, since it's his side-project), yet is a composer who couldn't be flatter. Another significant shortcoming is Mr. Guz's voice which, although perfectly suited to the genre and powerful, bears a little too much resemblance to Lemmy's, something bordering on plagiarism, really.

Musically speaking, our guys propose a hard rock/heavy metal with speed shades, featuring a "good" groove, where guitars always play a dominant role over the other instruments. Rock-solid and powerful riffs follow one after another, accompanied by a fairly powerful rhythm section, especially concerning the drums, a bit less for the bass, which maybe suffered from slightly low recording and can be clearly heard only in the solo parts. Well, what else is there to say...the twelve songs flow in an extremely linear way without causing any stir, offering some nice guitar solos, but nothing more.

It is regrettable that an appreciable artist like Shagrath has failed this time, but one cannot hide behind the fact that he objectively contributed a lot to BM; it would be quite misleading to judge the album based on the catchiness of the compositions, or even worse, based on the liking or disliking of those involved in the project.

To conclude, I would recommend this album only to those who want to acquire everything Shagrath has been a part of and to all those who live on bread, water, beer, and Motorhead (or AC/DC).

The rating would be a 2.5, but I rounded up because, as stated earlier, there are some small positive aspects, especially regarding the technical performance.