Pink Cream 69
In10sity

It's an arduous task for me to review the (for now) latest studio effort by Pink Cream 69. "In10sity", dated 2007, is the least successful chapter in the more than two-decade career of this all-nation band. Forget Thunderdome because it's now a vague memory. The album has terrible production, and aside from a couple of tracks, it's certainly not that thrilling.

Let's say there's a tendency towards more melody like on "Endangered", along with a guitar sound that heavily penalizes most of the compositions. The band, now a 5-piece (David Readman vocals, Dennis Ward bass, Alfred Koffler guitar, Uwe Reitenauer second guitar, and Kosta Zafiriou drums), should be destroying all forms of life with a compact sound, but the result isn't something more powerful, in fact, it's something flatter, alas!

It starts with "Children Of The Dawn", a rather sleep-inducing song that is better than Bonomelli chamomile! The beginning is too banal this time, even though Readman tries to cover the holes! "No Way Out" would be a great song if it weren't for a terrible guitar sound! "Crossfire" is one of the more successful tracks with a beautiful intro and a fantastic bass line by Ward, not to mention the beautiful atmosphere created by the keyboards and the melody crafted. "I'm Not Afraid" is also better executed; however, it's the production that somewhat ruins the whole sound (did they go to Uncle Tom's basement to record it?); nevertheless, it's a pleasant song with some good melody; certainly not a masterpiece, but one can settle for it; followed by the bland "New Religion", which, despite promising well, completely loses itself during the rest of the song in unsuccessful phrasings (especially with the guitar's wah-wahs that sound quite off); "The Hour Of Freedom" is certainly not thrilling and also becomes a missed opportunity; it doesn't hit as it should, and indeed it feels quite unfinished.

Halfway through the album, we proceed with the not very thrilling and quite bland "Stop This Madness", in which Pink Cream 69 writes one of the worst choruses in history (not to mention predictable. Forget Stop This Madness STOP THIS ALBUM!). "Desert Land" is an interlude that finally opens up to one of the few truly good songs, namely "Out Of This World": this time Ward and company wake up with a more decisive songwriting (too bad the production doesn't do it justice!), but it will be the last decent song (indeed!) on this album. "It's Just A State Of Mind" wants to fly high: too bad it crashes immediately to the ground! The same for "Wanna Hear You Rock" (what a pity! As if we're the German Kiss! Oh, come on, please!) a terrible song for a band that has definitely missed the mark badly this time! They close this ball and chain, the bonus track (which is second to last and not the last? What an organization in placing the tracks on the CD! Give me a break...) "My Darkest Hour", a pointless song and without head or tail, and the ballad (oh look a ballad! But why at the end? They could have put at least some decent one in the middle, right?) "Last Train To Nowhere" which is definitely a ballad to throw in the trash like almost the whole album. Meh!

Yes, alright, this time I've been sufficiently harsh. The album is bad, really bad. If you want the old Pink Cream, get "Electrified", "Thunderdome", "One Size Fits All", or "Games People Play", but this one, avoid it if you can. You'll save money, trust me! Anyway, I hope that after this immense rubbish (of which I only save 2 or 3 songs), at least by the end or the beginning of next year, they do something decent, otherwise, I will report them to the SIAE, I swear!