Turbonegro
Retox

THE REVIEW

The album is highly enjoyable: it starts and ends with a bang, while in the middle it alternates between fury and more tranquil states. It is the product of roots and musical influences as excellent as they are striking, among which are AC/DC, Kiss, and Turbonegro themselves. In "Hell Toupée" the "Back in Black" style bridge is almost embarrassing... but it's known they love to reference just about everyone and everything (also listen to "Fuck The World" from "Scandinavian Leather" to understand what I mean).

Amid metal riffs and more moderate sound choices including acoustic guitar parts (almost imperceptible) in "I Wanna Come" Euroboy's substantial influence in the songwriting becomes increasingly apparent, to the detriment of the punk framework of their early works, though guiding the compositions towards kinship with notable historical hard rock bands. Let's be clear; the punk energy and rawness remain but are increasingly mixed with harmonic, melodic, and sonic choices that tend to create a blend aiming towards a sort of universal rock unicum.

Guitars everywhere and of every musical flavor: 'classic' rock licks, saturated sounds from glowing tubes, phrases, and solos from the best Gibson masters: Jim Marshall and Gibson thank you sincerely. Drum parts that are punctual, powerful, and tight. Bass lines always supporting the other instruments. Vocals in perfect Turbonegro style, between energy and choir-like stadium chants. The lyrics and charisma of Van Helvete are absolutely unyielding. An icon of modern rock history, too often a character underestimated by the media system that still needs to economically exploit, like the best whores that never retire, the various Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Freddie Mercury. Forget Jaret Leto and others of the sort, who should bow down to him, and Hank would thank them with the train game or perhaps just a tongue kiss.

Ultimately, with their latest work, the band from Oslo does not disappoint too much. A stylistic evolution towards a more universal; or commercial, matrix can also be identified, for those who want to turn up their nose. Tracks that stand out are "We're Gonna Drop The Atom Bomb" (...could it be an answer to U2?), "Hell Toupée", "No, I'm Alpha Man", "You Must Bleed/All Night Long".

The latest manifesto from the Norwegians is unmissable. "What Is Rock?" is a must-have on the rockers' iPod.

We saved rock 'n' roll.
All on our own.
Enforced the toll on rock 'n' roll.
We saved rock 'n' roll.
With our bare hands.
We saved the goddamned rock 'n' roll.

...

Where is the cash? Where is the cash?
The money, the money, the money money money.

Not comparable to the unreachable "Apocalypse Dudes", the latest chapter of the 'Norwegian invaders', between tradition and evolution, deserves a 4.