Being from Europe myself, I actually grew up watching the Eurovision Song contest, and I still remember England’s Bucks Fizz winning with the inanely catchy “Making Your Mind Up” and becoming huge pop stars-one of the few commercial successes to arise from the contest. Watching the annual submission from Turkey was always a wonderful sonic car wreck also. However, I never thought in a million years I’d be reviewing an album on a metal site from a winner of the contest. A demon costume clad, cheese laden, 80’s hard rock band at that.

I’ve seen GWAR mentioned a lot as comparisons, but I have to tell you, musically, Lordi have little to do with GWAR other than their costumes and theatrics. Musically, Lordi, are in my opinion far better, (I’ve never been a fan of GWAR’s actual music) and play a horrendously cheesy yet catchy mix of hair band metal and 80’s metal such as Judas Priest, Scorpions and Twisted Sister, (the album actually feature guest appearances from Dee Snider, Jay Jay French and Udo Dirkschneider). This is more Motley Crue and Andrew WK and such than anything. Still, for pure, sing-a-long, simplistic arena rock anthems that will bring a smile to your face and get you mullet shaking, Lordi, actually deliver the goods.

Even I have to admit standout tracks like “Bringing Back the Balls to Rock”, “The Kids Who Wanna Play With the Dead” and “Hard Rock Hallelujah” (the song that won the Eurovision contest) and “The Chainsaw Buffet” brought a huge guilty grin to my face (and my wife’s) as well as the uber cheesy ballad “It Snows In Hell”. However, by the time the 3 bonus tracks do roll by, the gimmick factor has worn off somewhat and I’m ready for some death metal, however the bands mission of getting me to rock old school is well accomplished.

This special edition US release, features 3 bonus tracks and a DVD making it a bit more alluring for already curious US fans, and I’ll interested to see if US fans come out to see them on tour considering their huge rock star status on European shores.

[Visit the band's website]

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