Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Pink Cream 69
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2017
Running time: 44:57
Rating: 4.5/5
It’s true, just as Denis Ward said. He’s the famous sound wizard behind the sound of countless albums by metal and hard rock acts across the Old Continent, and no less famous as the founding, original bassist of German hard rock heavyweights Pink Cream 69. Their new album »Heasdtrong« is a stylistic shift toward a rawer, more primal sound for the band. In a way, it’s a flirtation with the early era of their career. You can sail straight back to 1989, when their debut studio album came out, and you’ll quickly find the right parallels with the opening of this review.
»Headstrong« is, then, nothing less and nothing more than a superb new record from this battle-hardened, hugely experienced band. Four years after »Ceremonial«, Pink Cream 69 are back on the scene with a fresh batch of polished songs that grab you with full-blooded force from the first second to the last, with their richly detailed mix of musical payoff and highly vibrant, hard-hitting riffs! It’s a new dose of cunningly wicked tracks that radiate the serious maturity and arranging wisdom of this seasoned quintet, which can boast incredible quality, credibility and tightness. There are no dips among the new songs. Alongside all the substantial and already familiar charm of the band’s musical track record, they also offer a much-needed dose of variety in ideas when you compare the lead motifs of the individual songs. On top of that, the album is highly dynamic thanks to its convincing weave of many different moods. Redman remains a top-class vocal executioner, who still handles both the mid-range vocal lines and the extremely high singing with great vehemence and confidence. Carrying power through the vocal registers causes him no trouble at all, even in his mature years. The band once again dresses up all that catchy chorus goodness with vocal harmonies, the guitar solos are again the very definition of well-oiled brilliance, and the whole sound of the new album actually puts even more emphasis than before on sheer crushing power. The keyboards are totally in the background, to the extent that Pink Cream 69 added them to the new album at all, or kept them in the sound. This is an album where guitar riffs absolutely dominate, along with all the ingenuity of weaving tasteful guitar ornaments into the transitions and instrumental passages.
In short, with the new album the band has once again stepped into a new era of creativity with real conviction. »Headstrong« marks a noticeable sonic shift compared to the previous album, and with it Pink Cream 69 keep up their exceptional quality and their polished, recognizable musical character, where the dose of metallic fire in their hard rock elemental core is once again more strongly emphasized this time. It’s a bundle of potent crushers that every fan of this superb, battle-tested lineup will adopt on the spot, again!
Lineup
David Readman – vocals
Alfred Koffler – guitar
Uwe Reitenauer – guitar
Dennis Ward – bass
Chris Schmidt – drums
Production
Denis Ward
Tracklist
01. We Bow To None
02. Walls Come Down
03. Unite And Divide
04. No More Fear
05. Man Of Sorrow
06. Path Of Destiny
07. Vagrant Of The Night
08. Bloodsucker
09. Whistleblower
10. The Other Man
