Artist: Rhino Bucket
Label: Acetate Records
Release: 2011
Rating: 3.5/5
Back and kicking again, the horned, thick-skinned L.A. hard rockers Rhino Bucket have obviously picked up enough drive and motivation from the successful tour behind their previous studio effort “The Hardest Town” (2009) to keep the creative fire burning, and a year and a half later their sixth studio album, “Who’s Got Mine”, was born.
The eleven new songs, written after the European tour that brought them to the old continent for the first time in 20 years, were produced by Doug Boehm, known for his work with Dirty Sweet and The Vines! Sticking with the facts, this is the band’s third album in total for Acetate Records, the third with Kix guitarist Brian “The Damage” Forsythe in the lineup, and the one where they made drummer Anthony “Tiny” Biuso a permanent member. He clearly clicked brilliantly with the rest of the guys on the last tour. Worth mentioning: the previous album “The Hardest Town” was drummed by the legendary Simon Wright (formerly of AC/DC, DIO, MSG, UFO), which was his second go with Rhino Bucket after the 1994 album “Pain”. Of the original members, the band today still counts Georg Dolivo on vocals and rhythm guitar and bassist Revee Downes.
Enough with the facts, then! Let’s get straight to the material on “Who’s Got Mine”. Rhino Bucket don’t budge an inch with it. They remain a sort of Los Angeles version of AC/DC. The riffs are simple, and the solos don’t exactly require advanced math to figure out! The band bets everything on straight-up kicking and pumping from the first beat, on boldness and the real deal of healthy rock n’ roll arrogance.
The first figure paving the way to that attitude is definitely Dolivo’s vocal, which, with a venomous high-pitched screech in the vein of Brian Johnson at his best, pours fuel into the greedy tank of the rattling race car these guys are tearing around in. Dolivo also has that “boozy breath” in his voice, at once cheeky, disrespectful and pointing straight to original sin. Eureka – Bon Scott charm! So you can “hear” two AC/DC singers in one voice.
The album runs on a single frequency. All or nothing. No ballads whatsoever. Just unstoppable rock n’ roll rolling in every direction! You have to wonder where these guys were when the Australian AC/DC-clone whippersnappers Airbourne showed up, because their stance and sound come across as a lot less naive than that comparison. Not only in the verses, where you can find more maturity, which suggests these guys have been on the scene since the eighties, but also in the fact that, whatever the style reminiscent of AC/DC, it’s hard to find a riff (guitar phrase) that structurally recalls the legends directly, which in Airbourne’s case isn’t so hard at all. So it’s clear who was always the teacher and who will obviously always be the student.
The juiciness and dynamics of the rapid-fire stream of scorching riffs are erotically paired with a voluminous rhythm section that fills out the sonic spectrum beautifully. The bass lines are straight, direct, clipped, yet in the production they reach an incredible warmth and a clearly pronounced pulsing effect of rattling and cutting through reinforced concrete! Like Simon Wright, Biuso is a drummer who relies on the muscle power of his whole body. Learning proper technique doesn’t come into it for him; the role models who pull him along are enough (Bobby Rondinelli, Vinnie Appice, Simon Wright,…). All in all, and first and foremost thanks to the indestructible character of Georg Dolivo’s voice, “Who’s Got Mine” is yet another Rhino Bucket album that breathes with full lungs the debauchery of authentic rock n’ roll, and with it Rhino Bucket stay right where they were with their debut studio album “Rhino Bucket” (1990).
“Who’s Got Mine” cements their status as a comeback band. With this record Rhino Bucket keep all their credibility and bring fans of the classic sound of AC/DC and Rose Tattoo a fresh little treat that they’ll gladly add to their personal record collections. And don’t forget. “Who’s Got Mine” is also set up to make one thing instantly clear. Rhino Bucket are a live band, and their energy hits maximum effect when the guys are standing on stage. More direct, sharp, honest and served up on a platter, whenever we look toward the term rock n’ roll, it simply doesn’t get. Extremely dirty, yet endlessly grabby! That’s the new Rhino Bucket album. Let’s also hope that with new activity (tours, new albums) the band manages a breakthrough that makes the wider European crowd notice, at the very least, that all that glitters is not Airbourne.
Lineup
Georg Dolivo – vocals, guitar
Brian Forsythe – guitar
Reeve Downes – bass
Anthony “Tiny” Biuso – drums
Production
Doug Boehm
Track list
1. Message In My Bottle
2. Lifeline
3. Back To Nowhere
4. Drive Thru Liquor
5. Who’s Got Mine
6. Her Way
7. Joke’s On You
8. Chase The Case
9. Hollywood And Wine
10. Something For Nothing
11. Rare Beauty
