Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Release date: 13.03.2020
Production: Leo Leoni
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Gotthard are by now considered a bunch of legends of European hard rock. It’s hard to wrap your head around it, but the band has been going for a full three decades already. On Friday the thirteenth of March, in the year of our Lord 2020, the band is releasing its thirteenth studio album, fittingly named “#13”. Lucky number or not, the album is once again exactly what’s expected and demanded from Gotthard. It’s different from its predecessor “Silver”, sharper and not as sugary, even though there’s room on it for (an immodest) two ballads, which is a Gotthard standard and a must-do for the female fans, plus a classic trick to get the band’s fans to grab the new release in even bigger numbers. I Can Say I’m Sorry is a ballad that delivers the Gotthard standard we’ve been spoiled with in the past (the track is elevated by an excellent Leoni guitar solo), while Marry You is the straw that breaks the camel’s back in the sweetness dosage, helped along by lyrics that are seriously dumb. But that’s apparently an unavoidable sacrifice if you cling this tightly to such a hard rock formula.
So, the ballads are dealt with quickly, and otherwise the album opens sharp and, across its whole running time, stays fired up and pouts with proper rock swagger. Cocky and at times pretty dark too, which fits the times we live in. The razor-edged opener Bad News sees the band instantly lock into an ultra-cranked, boisterous barrage of rowdy rock rhetoric, which turns out to be a superb choir for the opening catalyst, with a seriously predatory chorus. Bad conscience, for sure. And a nasty one on top of that. The guys push the pedal down a notch further with the even more cranked Every Time I Die, where the album keeps on crunching along in the embrace of classic hard rock rhetoric.
The first interesting detour, for the album and really for the very nature of Gotthard’s music, is the excellent Missteria (written with the help of Francis Rossi of Status Quo), brilliantly crossed with sneaked-in salsa rhythms, while the thunderous choir vocals accompanying Maeder’s singing breathe a Latin character into the track too. A great and successful experiment in crossing elements of the classic Gotthard sound with Latin tricks. The album’s second detour is the closing Rescue Me, likewise backed by plenty of unplugged tricks, extra percussion, a nicely woven-in “delta blues” element and an extremely dark finale, breathing in some Sabbath-style riffing and the psychedelic era of the seventies. Alongside Missteria, it’s another of the more interesting tracks, which we can declare as Gotthard heading into territory they haven’t tried before.
S.O.S. No two ways about it. ABBA! It’s interesting how they went about the cover. Gradual. From a totally balladic approach in the intro, then layer upon layer of fat, pouting guitars. It grabs harder with every round. An unnecessary move that belongs more on a compilation album of “rarities” and unreleased recordings, but the band obviously likes it a lot, so they put it on the album. Then there’s Another Last Time, which circles around the band’s already proven songwriting tricks from the past, and it’s not hard to find inspiring links to Whitesnake. Man On A Mission flirts with southern rock bluesy tricks, Save the Date serves up the mischievous side of Gotthard’s music. No Time To Cry, near the end, is a candidate for heavier rotation on the radio, and let’s hope the album gem doesn’t get overlooked in that respect.
By Gotthard’s criteria and standards, the band has delivered yet another different album, one that again radiates extraordinary compositional maturity and a high, internalized talent for setting up a predatory hook and an orthodox hard rock composition. These guys have rock’n’roll in their veins. With Maeder in the lineup, Gotthard are delivering their fourth “post-Steve Lee” album, which, with Maeder on lead vocals, sounds the most mature. Of all four, it’s also the most bristling, and it shows an extreme degree of songwriting consistency. It also serves up more drama theater and speaks in a darker voice than you’d expect, perhaps also because a good bunch of the tracks are built on minor keys.
In a relatively short time the band has once again delivered a set of very high-quality compositions that reach a high level of creative variety, and Gotthard are also working in musical moves they haven’t tried so far (Missteria, Rescue Me), while boldly holding on to all the credibility of the musical direction that made them respected, esteemed and big. Album “#13“ is a fresh, fascinating dive into classic hard rock, Gotthard-recipe style, which the band can’t and won’t deny.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
01. Bad News
02. Every Time I Die
03. Missteria
04. 10,000 Faces
05. S.O.S.
06. Another Last Time
07. Better Than Love
08. Save The Date
09. Marry You
10. Man On A Mission
11. No Time To Cry
12. I Can Say I’m Sorry
13. Rescue Me
bonus tracks:
14. No Time To Cry (demo version)
15. I Can Say I’m Sorry (piano version)
Lineup:
Nic Maeder – vocals
Leo Leoni – guitar
Freddy Scherer – guitar
Marc Lynn – bass guitar
Hena Habegger – drums
