Artist: Crashdiet
Label: Universal Music Group
Release: 2005
Rock side of MTV is ruled by emo, post grunge and nu-metal bands. Mötley Crüe, Guns N’Roses and Farrah Fawcett bad hairdays are all but forgotten. Suddenly, a bunch of misftis appear wth a debut album, and change the world back to the rock’n’roll sleaze…
Science fiction? It came damn close to actually happening. Back then CrashDiet were a foursome of Swedes, the oldest of them 25, and they were seen as the first sleaze band since 1991 to sign with a major global label (Warner) for a debut(!). The debut came out, good reviews rained down, the first video got shot, there was talk of a tour…and then came the shock: the death of the singer and driving force Dave Lepard. A suicide under unexplained circumstances burst the dream like a soap bubble and sent the band into hibernation and turbulence all the way up to today, when their second album is finally coming out. But before we check that one out, we need to get the history straight….Ladys and gents, i give you Rest in Sleaze.
When I, a huge sleaze fan, first heard the track Riot in everyone and found out it was a demo from a new Swedish band, I got a serious case of the hiccups. WHAT? The fury of early Motley, soaked in the filth of Guns and Faster Pussycat, wrapped in the Scandinavian packaging of the legendary Hanoi Rocks. How could you pass that up? And when the record came out after the demo, I was picking my jaw up all over the apartment. Phenomenal. I reckon the best comparison for this record is that scene from Pulp Fiction where they jam adrenaline into the heart of the clinically dead babe and she springs up like nothing ever happened. Sawing guitars, a high, dirty and not always on-pitch vocal, gang vocals and a whole pile of cymbals, spiced with lyrics about underground rebellion, escaping apathy and social norms, sex, drugs, and all of it done in a way that leaves not a moment’s doubt that any of it is faked. Spin Riot in everyone and the hair on your neck has to stand up – “we’re the kids from the underground, there’s a riot in everyone” – how cool is that? No love ballads here, this is pure top-grade, “dirty to the bone” rock’n’roll – with titles like Breakin’ the Chainz, The Needle, QueenObscene and Knokk ‘Em Down, what else could you possibly expect?
A while has passed since that record; in the underground it was followed by an explosion of sleaze bands all over Europe, and the scene is climbing back to its former glory. So can we call CrashDiet a kind of Hanoi Rocks for today?
There are definitely parallels, and I personally call Rest in sleaze the lost successor to the legendary records Appetite for destruction and Too fast for love. Give it a listen and tell me I’m wrong (if you even dare!).
Line-up
Dave Lepard – vocals
Peter London – guitar
Martin Sweet – bass
Eric Young – drums
Tracklist
1. Knokk `Em Down
2. Riot in Everyone
3. Queen Obscene/69 Shots
4. Breakin` the Chainz
5. Needle in Your Eye
6. Tikket
7. Out of Line
8. It’s a Miracle
9. Straight Outta Hell
10. Back on Trakk
11. Tomorrow
12. Riot in Everyone
