Label: Silver Lining Music
Release date: October 24, 2025
Production:
Genre: Heavy Rock
Rating: 8.5/10
Back in the ’80s, the Scottish rock ‘n’ roll warriors Heavy Pettin conquered stages all over the world, while their 1983 debut album “Lettin Loose” made it loud and clear that the band was on the verge of a commercial breakthrough. Heavy Pettin’ toured with Ozzy Osbourne and Mötley Crüe! The world was laid out at the feet of the lads from Glasgow. Riding a wave of big applause, an even better album followed two years later, more mature and with even greater production scope, “Rock Ain’t Dead” (1985), which flirted with AOR trends. The breakthrough into the top ranks of the world’s hard and heavy rock scene never came. Four years later came another album, “Big Bang”, and then Heavy Pettin called it a day and went on a 30-year break.
In 2020 they woke up with the “4 Play” EP, and now, at long last, the fourth studio album “Rock Generation” is here. Rock Generation doesn’t go overboard on anything. It simply follows the legacy of the band’s past catalog, even if someone might ask how that’s possible, given that the only original member left is singer ‘Hamie’. But the commander has gathered comrades-in-arms around him who are cut from the same cloth when it comes to musical views. So “Rock Generation” sounds very nostalgic, because it summons the spirit of heavy rock from the classic days. The early eighties.
The new album is excellently produced. It’s got a lively swing and a welcome dose of dark, brooding drama theater! ‘Hamie’ sounds great in every register. His vocals are poured perfectly into the classic phrasing of every track. Picture a kind of mix of old Saxon (the fiery opening title track, or the lead riff in Mother Earth), high musicality (in the chorus melodies) that evokes the school days of Def Leppard (Brother Sister), all doused in the swagger of Thin Lizzy (X-Rated). The songs are all carefully polished down to the last detail, and the album flows incredibly smoothly with superbly built dynamics that never bore you for a second. Even though it constantly brings to mind the times of the great rock classics that stand on the pillars of the most commercially successful bands, first and foremost it stays true to the legacy of the first three albums.
The strength of the newest album lies in its coherence from the first to the last spin on the ‘record player’, in its rich variety of ideas within a cemented formula that Heavy Pettin’ move around in very skillfully, and in a hungry production that’s the engine behind a gorgeously contrasted mix of bristling punch and highly musical catchiness, which ‘under the skin’ calls out for ‘arena rock’ appeal! A real rock’n’roll bomb doused in the massive decibel-wrecking power of classic-days heavy rock and old-school metal, the kind that was trampled in 45 years ago by the N.W.O.B.H.M. bands of the British Isles, which is where Heavy Pettin’ actually come from!
“Rock Generation”, then! An album that announces there’s no surrender for the guts of five old-timers who know exactly what stands behind their name, understand it, and follow it with respect! You can’t get deeper or more honest than that. Welcome home, lads. And please, don’t stop (yet).
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Rock Generation
2. Faith Healer (Kill My Demons)
3. Brother Sister
4. Oblivion
5. Mother Earth
6. X – Rated
7. Bullets and Pills
8. Line In The Sand
9. Live UR Best Life
10. This Life
Line-up:
Stephen “Hamie” Hayman – vocals
Dave “Davo” Aitken – guitar, backing vocals
Richie “St. James” Dews – guitar, backing vocals
David “Boycee” Boyce – bass
Mick “The Wizard” Ivory – drums
