Author: Urban Bolta
Artist: Airbourne
Label: Roadrunner Records
Release: 2010
Runtime: 46:53
Rating: 3/5
The year was 2007 when Airbourne released their debut, “Runnin’ Wild”. They were carefree, and they hit the bullseye. The debut was a success, clean as a whistle, and overnight Airbourne became a band that pretty much the whole music scene started betting on. Today, three years later, the world has changed quite a bit for the young Aussies. The success of a debut put out on a major label, nonstop touring around the globe and generally huge media support have lifted Airbourne into the ranks of household names. Names that are expected to do great things in the future. Maybe too great. So before recording their second full-length, Airbourne found themselves under pressure, with fans and label alike expecting a lot from them.
And so we ended up with the album “No Guts. No Glory.” Its 13 songs deliver a proper rock’n’roll punch, and listening to them makes all the rockers’ parties you’ve lived through and blown out flash before your eyes, along with the debauchery and all the other nonsense that mostly resembles spending your free time through the eyes of your average long-haired teenager. Lyrically, the Aussies have cemented themselves even deeper in the waters of teenage naivety and rebellion, even though I’d bet my right hand these guys have been living a comfortable, well-off life, so it feels like they’re singing about this stuff secondhand. The songs are built on a cookie-cutter template, and their peak usually arrives in choruses in the style of Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot or AC/DC, with seriously anthemic melodies and rallying cries, boosted by group shouting that amplifies the sense of community – after all, we’re all in the same boat. All for one, one for all!
The songs race past at breakneck speed, because Airbourne are like an express train, a panting locomotive fed by a predictable rhythm machine with Justin Street on bass and the older of the O’Keeffe brothers, Ryan, on drums. Technical chops don’t matter to them one bit, since they cultivate a style where everything else counts more than a sense for sophisticated instrumental playing. The whole album of rock’n’roll racket is built on basic guitar riffs with only rare flirtations with slide guitar, which ties them tightly to AC/DC. They’re probably sick of comparisons with their famous older colleagues, but with songs built so similarly, the comparisons will follow them for their entire career. The main points where you can’t draw parallels between the two bands are Airbourne’s heavier sound, faster tempo and less blues in the guitar lines. The sieve through which you consume Airbourne’s tunes is Joel O’Keeffe’s instigating vocal, which can be especially annoying, but that’s exactly why it fits so perfectly with the music of these mean Australian hellraisers. Born To Kill opens with a demolishing chorus and heralds a real tsunami of rock’n’roll noise, while the next one, No Way But The Hard Way, a touch slower, pulls out that erotic streak that’s always present in bands of their ilk. One of the album’s highlights is definitely Bottom Of The Well, one of the few tracks that works on the listener on several levels, since its slower pace let it slip out of that aforementioned template Airbourne crank out their songs with as if it were nothing.
On the second album, Airbourne follow the formula of their debut: fast, punchy and anthemic. Sadly, they may have gone into “No Guts. No Glory.” a bit too headlong, since the songs are way too similar to each other and the listener only really gets a grip on them after a few spins, despite their super simple musical expression: rock’n’roll till you die! Don’t get me wrong, it’s a perfectly decent album, worth listening to and chasing away boredom with, but to achieve anything more substantial it’s missing a smidge more identity of its own. In short, “No Guts. No Glory.” will hit everyone looking for a hefty dose of fun in hard rock right between the eyes, even though in the long run it may leave you unsatisfied.
Lineup
Joel O’Keeffe – vocals, lead guitar, keyboards (track 6)
David Roads – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Justin Street – bass guitar, backing vocals
Ryan O’Keeffe – drums
Production
Johnny K
Tracklist
1. Born To Kill
2. No Way But The Hard Way
3. Blonde, Bad And Beautiful
4. Raise The Flag
5. Bottom Of The Well
6. White Line Fever
7. It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over
8. Steel Town
9. Chewin’ The Fat
10. Get Busy Livin’
11. Armed And Dangerous
12. Overdrive
13. Back On The Bottle
