BRAND NEW SIN

Recipe For Disaster

Century Media
rating icon 6.5 / 10

Track listing:

01. Arrived
02. The Loner
03. Brown Street Betty
04. Black and Blue
05. Running Alone
06. Freight Train
07. Vicious Cycles
08. Another Reason
09. Days Are Numbered
10. Once In a Lifetime
11. Dead Man Walking
12. Gulch
13. Wyoming


Saying there's an element of cheese to BRAND NEW SIN's phlegmy, burly biker rock is like saying Ozzy occasionally mumbles a little bit. This band serves up great reeking fondue pots of swaggering clichés, somewhere between cock rock, TOBY KEITH, GODSMACK and ZAKK WYLDE's sweaty leather Harley vest. We've got dead men walking, our days are numbered, freight trains are runnin' and vicious cycles are making us black and blue. The low point comes during album closer "Wyoming", where singer Joe Altier yowls about "my boots, my pride and my gun" with enough maudlin shitkicker bonhomie to annoy even a KID ROCK fan. Ease up, there, Marlboro Man, you're from fuckin' Syracuse.

But the hell of it is, once you get past the relentlessly contrived faux-Southern kitsch, there are some fine tunes on "Flirtin' With" — sorry, I mean "Recipe For Disaster". Single "Black and Blue" is an asskicker, with a guitar riff that calls to mind Randy Rhoads-era Ozzy, while "Running Alone" and "Once In a Lifetime" provide some dark, brooding balladeering (and some of the schlockiest moments on the album). "Brown Street Betty" swaggers like the best cowboy-hat hard rock bands of the late '80s (think BADLANDS and LAW AND ORDER, or a less sleazy CIRCUS OF POWER).

The album is weighed down by a lot of uninteresting tracks — "Recipe For Disaster" is definitely one of those records where the good stuff is stacked up front. "Vicious Cycles" and "Another Reason" are just sorta there, while "Days Are Numbered" bears out the hair metal comparison above — seriously, this is an L.A. GUNS song, chicken-fried and dipped in gravy. The boogie-dude shtick is most annoying on songs like these, where the ideas aren't there to at least make the songs good and cheesy, and we're left with this wanky Sunset-Strip-MOLLY-HATCHET conceit and no hooks to rock out to. Altier seems to have limited himself a bit this time around, as well — the vocal lines were just more interesting on the self-titled album, and there were more harmonies to keep things from getting too one-dimensional – an easy trap to fall into, given his gruff, limited range.

I liked BRAND NEW SIN's first album just fine, and I don't really even mind this one – I just wish they'd have written an album full of tunes as strong as "Arrived", "Black and Blue" and "Brown Street Betty". Even with its flaws, though, fans of BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, COC's more polished moments and a little guilty-pleasure helping of the GODSMACK/STAIND school of modern rock will find a lot to love on "Recipe For Disaster".

Author:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).