By STEVE MASCORD
AFTER only a couple of listens, I was all ready to pan Angry Anderson’s comeback LP as a major disappointment, featuring as it does a fancy LA guitarist (Michael Slamer), a bunch of seemingly shlocky anthems and production which is slick beyond belief.
However, a week-plus after those initial explorations, I’ve come to seriously believe that Blood From Stone is one of the most significant Australian heavy rock albums to be released in a long while.
Angry is the first to admit that Blood From Stone was aimed to achieving success with the same white American consumers who buy
Mötley Crüe records.
For that reason, there are sticky-sweet harmonies, Van Halen-esque guitar and the sort of riffing you would expect to hear on a Steve Jones, Crue or Shotgun Messiah album … included throughout, without a Pete Wells slide guitar in evidence.
And that’s the key. If this 10-track set seems wimpy at a first listen, it’s heavy as shit by the fourth or fifth spin – IF you forget Rose Tattoo and accept Blood From Stone on its own merits.
The album features a screaming vocalist performing a set of abrasive songs (most of them about either conflict or attitude), which are written with a ferocious freshness aimed squarely at the jugular vein.
If you don’t make the mistake I did and don’t make pointless comparisons to the Tatts, then you’ll instantly recognise “Heaven” and “Survivor” as bona-fide Oz rock classics and laugh at the suggestion that “Stone Cold”, “Motorbike” and “Love From Ashes” are anything but barroom brawling rock songs.
Equally, you’ll marvel at Angry’s epics “Fire And Water” and “Bad Days”, although you’ll probably wonder why he recorded “Born To Be Wild” again…
And you’ll arrive at the same conclusion I did – but a lot quicker – that this album features music every bit as tough and murderous as the Tatts at their best, just in a different way.
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