Grumpynators - City Of Sin

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This is the second full-length album by this band from Denmark. I gotta admit I don't know much about the Metal scene in Denmark and I know just a few bands like VOLBEAT and KING DIAMOND. Other than, my knowledge is quite limited as for musical references for this country. They actually opened for VOLBEAT on an earlier European Tour.

I didn't know what to expect pretty much. It said they were really influenced by the Rockabilly music of the 1960's and added their own unique twist. I did manage to find a bit of this in a few songs but I felt it was almost non-existent on most of the album. I thought I'd hear something similar to maybe the STRAY CATS or HEADCAT but I was dead wrong. All of the songs have a life of its own, there is no rhyme or reason, each song is a different style music and I felt that was one of the strongest points of the album. They offer something different each time and I guess they don't want to be typecast or painted in a corner with one particular style of music.

They definitely blend a lot of elements from various styles of music. You have some really heavier elements, resembling the earlier Thrash Metal scene, especially on ''Tears of Whiskey''. Probably my favorite song of the bunch. They added a lot of old school Punk elements on a few songs, like on ''We are the Outcasts'' and ''St.Elvis''. I mean I grew up with the Punk renaissance (call it whatever you want) in the early 90's and this sounded straight out of that period. I could have pictured them with bands like PENNYWISE or BAD RELIGION. When Punk rock mattered and they didn't become that Punk-Pop sound that bands like GREEN DAY adopted later on in their musical path and career. These songs are great and really reminded me of my high school days. Props to them!

Another song that caught my attention was ''Hotel 2nd Age''. I felt the beginning of the song was awfully familiar, it reminded me of a mid to late 90's cover of ''London'' by ANTHRAX. It was a B-Side on one of their singles back then (was it ''Nothing''? I don't remember unfortunately). The original song was from THE SMITHS, a song that was not like any other songs from that band back in the day. Many considered them was the pioneers of Alternative Rock in England and this song was one of their fastest. So the guitar riffs of ''Hotel 2nd Age'' reminded me a lot of this song, it stuck in my head even after a few days not listening to this album! This is how good I thought the song sounded. An earworm, nothing better than that after you listen to album. If you remember riffs and songs on a flip of the dime, it means it had an impact on you. I felt this album struck a chord in me, it has so many different elements, they have old school rock, a bit of Glam Rock on ''Pretty Little Devil'' and the aforementioned Punk Rock and Thrash Metal elements thrown in the mix.

The only negative thing I noticed is the production. Compared to my next album I have reviewed for this week, it doesn't sound really loud. You can barely hear the Double Bass, and when i read about the band, they seemed to have a good grasp on the musical elements from this very instrument. But you can barely hear it throughout the album and I thought it was really a shame. I think the mixing wasn't all that great, you can hear the drums and guitars fine but the Bass and the vocals (on a few songs) sound drowned in the rest of the instruments. The vocalist has a very unique voice, if you mixed M. Shadows from AVENGED SEVENFOLD with Michale Graves from THE MISFITS. Unfortunately, we don't get to hear him very well on some of the songs. Even though you had a mediocre production, it still a pretty good diverse album.

Songwriting: 7
Originality: 8
Memorability: 8
Production: 6