Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Pretty Maids
Label: Frontiers Records
Release date: 2013
Running time: 52:24
Rating: 4.5/5
Pretty Maids are no flash in the pan. The long-lived Danish melodic hard rockers, who have been holding their ground on the scene since 1981, are a firmly cemented, respected name in the world of rock music. Their breakthrough albums »Future World« and »Red, Hot And Heavy« are considered cult classics among hard rock fans.
Pretty Maids have always cranked up the sound throughout their career. Over the years they’ve been building an ever heavier image. They’re one of those rock bands whose sound production, with its riffs pushed hard to the front, reaches the borderline where the flirtation with the bible of metal gets more and more obvious. Their German peers Pink Cream 69, who released their new studio album a month earlier, have a similarly cranked-up sound. Pretty Maids keep up a venomous intensity that hits its drama-theater peaks in tracks like »Hooligan« or the title track »Motherland«.
With Pretty Maids’ move to Frontiers Records and the release of the album »Wake Up The Real World« (2006), a kind of new spring began for the band. Not only did the label bring the band back to wider audiences around the globe, but the main reason lies in the simple realization that Pretty Maids today are better arrangers and musicians than ever before. They’ve got everything figured out, in the studio and out of it, no hide-and-seek games. They create with the hunger of youngsters who’d be counting a dewy 20 years, and with a drive to prove themselves as if the band’s career were only just getting started.
With »Pandemonium« Pretty Maids proved that even in their mature years they can pull another outstanding album out of their sleeves. Thanks to its perfect polish, it was received brilliantly on all fronts. The band was aware of the quality and stature of the record. So there must have been some nerves when they walked back into the studio to start recording its successor. To keep the favorable conditions for the chemistry between their creative bonds and their excellent songwriting form going in 2012 and 2013, they decided to once again call in the experienced producer Jacob Hansen to help shape the sound, a key part of the story of the album »Pandemonium« (2010).
The result is another outstanding studio achievement. Not only has the new album kept up the quality level of its predecessor »Pandemonium«, but for all its pronounced darkness it actually offers an even bigger melodic payoff than its predecessor. Even though it doesn’t have a single track as hypnotically catchy as »Little Drops of Heaven« from the previous studio effort (the closest any song on »Motherland« gets to it is »Sad To See You Suffer«), the new album is further intensified and even more sharply defined when it comes to overall melodic payoff. That’s why the ups and downs between tracks are smaller in this department, and »Motherland« can boast a compactness that’s a touch more polished than its predecessor’s.
This is an album of twelve new songs (not counting the shorter »Confession«, which works as a prelude, slowly building atmosphere before the entrance into »The Iceman«) that’s optimally equipped. From head to toe. In everything we demand from Pretty Maids. That means a compact, rock-solid vice of full-blooded, binding melodicism and blazing, cranked-up punch, gloriously crowned with the recognizable, passionate engraving of Ronnie Atkins’ one-of-a-kind vocals.
Morten Santager’s integration as a regular member of the band has tightened the bond between guitar riff and keyboards even more, and thereby strengthened the arranging power in the camp. Even though the wall of guitars is extremely thick on »Motherland« too, the keyboards are just as drastically upfront, and in the arrangements they effectively deepen the predatory grip of the gloomy mood that winds through the album. The keyboards take over a big share of the spotlight in the soundscape especially in »Fool Of The Nation«, in the already mentioned villainous prelude to »The Iceman« called »Confession« (which could easily have turned up in one of King Diamond’s horror flicks), and then in the closing »Wasted« or in the track »I See Ghosts«.
Pretty Maids are masters of arrangement. They know exactly how a song has to be built to go off at full blast. In the verse the guitar phrases usually “lie low”, so that’s when Ronnie Atkins “creeps” into the absolute foreground with his vocals, never letting you down with his deeply felt delivery at any point on the album. Backing him in such arrangements are a teasing backdrop of keyboards and sophisticatedly placed chords. Next comes a proper avalanche of riffs before the chorus, gravitating toward the pompous peak of the songs within the chorus melodies. Songs “forged” like this get under your skin in no time, which is exactly what they’re meant to do. The messages come across as strikingly real, meaning Pretty Maids know how to make sure the poetry is backed by the right atmospheric setting in the delivery of individual songs like »I See Ghosts«, »Mother Of All Lies«, »Bullet For You«, »The Iceman« and »Sad To See You Suffer«.
»Motherland« is another excellent Pretty Maids album. Its intensity doesn’t let up for even a second. It’s a hugely dark manifesto. A manifesto of the dark state that blind faith in liberal capitalism has led us into. Darker than its already dark predecessor, yet offering more melody at the same time. The masters remain masters. Routine, experience, confidence. Not a single misstep. Let’s hope the new-spring story for Pretty Maids doesn’t stop for a long time yet!
You can already buy the new Pretty Maids album “Motherland” at:
Lineup
Ronnie Atkins – vocals
Ken Hammer – guitar
Morten Sandager – keyboards
Allan Tschicaja – drums
Rene Shades – bass guitar
Production
Jacob Hansen
Track list
1. Mother Of All Lies
2. To Fool A Nation
3. Confession
4. The Iceman
5. Sad To See You Suffer
6. Hooligan
7. Infinity
8. Why So Serious
9. Motherland
10. I See Ghosts
11. Bullet For You
12. Who What Where When Why
13. Wasted
