Rawk roundup – Pretty Maids vs. De La Cruz vs. Stryper

Rawk roundup – Pretty Maids vs. De La Cruz vs. Stryper

PRETTY MAIDS
Motherland
Frontiers Records

For sure, it’s thirty years since the Danish melodic rockers appeared on the scene. They celebrated that with their debut DVD, ” It Comes Alive (Maid in Switzerland)”, but now they’re getting back to business with the follow up to their 2010 release, “Pandemonium”. And you won’t be surprised to learn that after all those years of quality melodic hard rock, this is an album of, um, quality melodic hard rock.

This thirteenth studio album avoids any connotations of bad luck by being chock full of classy AOR and melodic hard rock tunes, whether they be ballads or rockers. The single, ‘Mother of All Lies’ and album tracks like ‘Why So Serious?’ and ‘Who What Where When Why’ are as good as anything they’ve recorded, and when they turn the amps up to 11 on the heavier numbers like ‘Hooligan’ they show themselves as masters of metal as well.

Founder members Ken Hammer and Ronnie Atkins are in fine form, with the vocals of Atkins as strong as ever, and this record is certainly near the top of their game.

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DE LA CRUZ
Street Level
Frontiers Records

And now we’re off to LA for some eighties sleaze rock. That is to say LA in the Gold Coast of Australia. To be fair, it is still the eighties there, so the fact that – wait for it – Roxxi Catalano, Casey Jones, Lacey Lane and the disappointedly named (and first to leave, mark my words) Grant Daniell have recorded an album with songs such as ‘Girls Go Wild’, ‘Gimme Love’, ‘Cherry Bomb’ and ‘S.E.X.’ should come as no great surprise.

Basically, it’s Skid Row in 1989, which is no bad place to be, especially as Roxxi Catalano can hit the notes that Sebastian Bach can only vaguely remember nowadays. It’s the same mix of harmonies, catchy choruses and borderline metal riffs that made this sound so endearing a quarter of a century ago. And as someone who was there the first time around, I’m more than happy to shoogle my arthritic hip along in time to such high octane anthems as ‘Girls Go Wild’ and ‘Cherry Bomb’.

There are a couple of moments where things go a bit too Motley Crue, but we can forgive them lapses of taste like that, because there is more than enough of the good stuff. This would have been huge back in the day, and anyone who years for hairspray, leather trousers and guys in makeup. Well, not anyone, just those who do it for hard rockin’ musical reasons, will really enjoy this.

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STRYPER
Second Coming
Frontiers Records

The Yellow & Black Attakk Is Bakk! Again. Yes, to hell with the devil, Christs soldiers of metal are coming to save your soul through the power of rock and roll. From which, you may gather, I’ve always had a soft spot for Stryper.

The original line up is still in force, after Tim Gaines returned on bass for their 2010 cover album, um, “The Covering”, but people looking for a new Stryper album are out of luck. Because “Second Coming” sees then re-recording 14 tracks of old, along with a mere two new numbers. So, boo hiss to that. I’m sure they will claim it’s for musical reasons, but we’re not stupid. Bands do this because they don’t own their original masters, and they want to be able license the songs to films, games, compilations; that sort of thing. So is it any good?

Well, yes. In my world you can’t go wrong with songs like ‘Soldiers Under Command’, ‘The Rock That Makes Me Roll’ and ‘To Hell With The Devil’. They sound punchier than the originals, although lacking in the eighties charm. And the new songs are more traditional Stryper than anything they did on their 21st century reunion albums, although I doubt anyone will play ‘Bleeding From The Inside’ and ‘Blackened’ ahead of the classic material.

It may hook in some new folks who’ve never heard Stryper, and it may get old fans to update their vinyl. Whatever, it’s good to hear these songs again.

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Classic Stryper in action;