“World Of Pain shows that Angel King are more than adept at delivering some pretty hot sleaze rock songs, but just not a whole albums worth.”
Unfortunately, when you come from Sweden as Angel King do and when you have the tag of glam/sleaze rock, immediately the expectations of those from this corner of the world in Australia are sky high. That’s unfair on bands that aren’t the world dominating quality of the likes of Crashdiet, Hardcore Superstar or Sister for example…but it’s a fact of life. So by using that as an intro, I am probably setting up, YOU, the reader, into thinking that Angel King and their debut album falls well, well, well short of those standards? Well those are indeed massively high standards, but World Of Pain shows that Angel King are more than adept at delivering some pretty hot sleaze rock songs, but just not a whole albums worth. If you heard them in isolation, tracks such as Living In The Wild Life, Enemy and Wasteland would have you saying “who the fuck sings this?” and reaching for your Shazam application to find out. Raw, bluesy, sleazy, hard rock is the order of the day, with lead singer Lazzy G sounding like he’s swallowed a few razor blades in his time, a voice that kind of reminded me of a cross between Blackie Lawless (W.A.S.P), Ron Young (Little Caesar) and Skenie (The Poor) minus the Aussie accent of the latter of course! As a full album however, unfortunately a few too many plodding type numbers limit it’s overall enjoyment. Speaking of enjoyment, I did enjoy the choice of band member names….Jack Vegas on guitars, Rock Boston on bass and Snake Denver on drums, but where’s Rikki Chattanooga?
For those that follow the whole Swedish sleaze scene or those who just have a love of raw 80’s hard rock in general, Angel King are certainly worth checking out. Check out the preview below of one of the albums other catchier tracks and see what you think for yourself, it’s Rock N Roll Doctor with a healthy dose of KISS!
Essential Information
For fans of: Swedish sleaze rock and raw 80’s hard rock
Release date: 18 May 2012
Record label: Meantime Music
Website: www.angelking.se
Tracklisting:
01. Dangerous
02. World Of Pain
03. She Wants To Be Loved
04. Living The Wild Life
05. Enemy
06. Fahrenheit 541
07. Rock And Roll Doctor
08. Get Up
09. Wasteland
10. Last Generation
