If I had to make up a metal compilation of this year’s catchiest metal songs, “Rock’n’Roll Devil”, the title number from the second album by Swedish Death ‘n’ Roll trio Helltrain, would pronouncedly fetch up somewhere there at one of the places atop. As you most probably surmised, the release at issue is yet another metal ode of worship to one of this planet’s greatest genres. Implemented through the combination of simplistic square riffs backed up by no less simplistic tuneful keyboards, quick-moving rhythms, nearly punk-ish moods and mid-range death growls in the vein of God Dethroned’s Mr. Sattler, Rock’n’Roll Devil owns a sweet, almost MTV-friendly character. Not an entirely winning combination for a seasoned metal head, if you ask me, but good enough to provide you with a necessary background while you are doing your daily dozen or getting your house cleaned.

As a matter of fact, there is no much to be said about this whole album, as it doesn’t touch you with something really extraordinary or worthy of closer scrutiny. Consisting of ten riff-based blasts, Rock’n’Roll Devil varies in degrees of speed, switching from faster to more mid-tempo rockers, all of which don’t exceed the 5-minute mark as a rule. While a few of its pieces, such as the mentioned title track, “You’re The Man”, “Great Halls Of Fire” and “Burning”, are immediate attention-getters that grab you with their full life, nearly danceable energetics and sticky verses and refrains, the rest of the songs are merely unmemorable Extreme Pop Metal whose major destination is to fill the space. Nevertheless, those better offerings do make you feel like spinning this release more than once as long as you are not put out by its overall sugary constitution, sometimes damn reminiscent of America’s pop punk heroes Offspring. At the same time, don’t hope to be hooked for good, for this is one of those releases that produce a bubblegum effect with the lapse of time getting rather tasteless and stale upon repeated usage.

But once again, I’m pretty sure that more than a few people will find this unpretentious one-sided offering a pretty good entertainment at the end of the day that will fit well in between more serious metal explorations done by an inquisitive metal mind.

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