Kenny Stewart – Skullthuggery 2012

NOW!

Former Dirty Tricks vocalist Kenny Stewart is back with his 2nd solo LP, a full band, including former Dirty Tricks mate and Rogue Male Johnny Fraser Binnie on guitar, in tow this time. A lot of what I had to say in the review of his first offering that can still be found here at Hellride would hold true for this release to. There is a back and forth between quite enjoyable catchiness and almost irritating repetitiveness, thankfully more weighted more heavily toward the former. There is a very real and palpable organic quality to this; you can tell he and the band really mean it. No pretentions here, just letting fly with their musical inclinations, for better or worse and all else be damned.

The inclusion of a full band definitely does take this up a notch from the debut though. Right from the sturdy opening track “Demolition Man”, Fraser Binnie’s guitar adds an extra edge and some sharp soloing. There is some pretty solid and muscular riffing, coupled with weathered but strong vocals and a good melody that makes tracks like “All Hell Broke Loose”, “Your Enemy is My Best Friend” and “Leperized” very good listens…and then there are tracks like “The Daze of Our Lives” that I just don’t get. Mixed amongst them are tracks like “20 Vision” and “White Man Speak with Forked Tongue” that any accurate general description of would be sighting 80’s genres that would have me running screaming (the latter would not sound out of place on a Miami Vice soundtrack), but somehow manage to be fun anyway.

This gets points for heart, authenticity and originality (me thinks finding anything real similar to this would be a fairly hard task) if not necessarily for consistency. If you don’t mind the mix of 70’s hard rock blended with 80’s metal and a dash of 80’s AOR and a smidge of top 40 to go with it, than you could do worse than check out either of Kenny Stewart’s offerings, this would be the one to start with.

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