Review by Paul Monkhouse for MPM
Always aiming for the stars, Danish rockers Shotgun Revolution have a sound built for arenas and in this fourth album they don’t hold back in bringing the thunder.
Making the sort of hook heavy anthemic stompers that Alter Bridge and Black Stone Cherry have made their own, the quartet add their own sleazy edge to proceedings and set themselves out as mere copyists of the two American bands.
Whilst vocalist Ditlev Ulkriksen certainly has the impressive range of Myles Kennedy, the music itself also has a darker edge tonally and at times touches of the sinister atmosphere generated by Sabbath and other such heavyweights as displayed in opener ‘Wormwood’.
The album is a rush, barely stopping to catch its breath as it goes from rampaging ‘Enter The Fire’, the groove laden ‘Café of the Damned’ to the epic and slow building ‘Under the Surface’, each displaying a natural confidence across the spectrum.
The band aren’t afraid to nod to the heritage of their sound as ‘Black Angel’ glories as an 80’s soaked hard rocker that grabs the best of that era and gives it a modern sheen and grit whilst ‘Claustrophobia’ and ‘The Fall’ are the feral offspring of the aforementioned Alter Bridge.
Shotgun Revolution seem to be able to perfectly walk the tightrope between melody and brutality, the guitarwork of Martin Frank blistering and yet imbued with a deftness of touch and style that is like honey but with the barbed sting still in the sweet liquid.
Drummer Kasper Lund and bass player Michael Venneberg Carlsen know how to turn it on too, the pair catching the dynamic power of Zeppelin with the ragged swing of Guns ‘n’ Roses and this all adds to the primal rush of adrenaline.
The album closes with the pairing of ‘Cold Starlight’ and ‘After The Storm’, both featuring a touch of blues amongst the bluster, they make for a satisfyingly huge finish to ‘IV’.
In addition to the giant sound the four-piece bring, the production duties skillfully handled by Frank, there is the upbeat feel here that has served other arena fillers so well, showing a positivity that will endear them to the masses and see them embraced across the spectrum. This is probably the secret weapon in their armory and pushes their musical firepower ever onwards and upwards as larger and larger stages beckon.
Given all these various factors at play, with a little luck the scene will crack wide open for the Copenhagen combo and in this release, they’ll find themselves playing in the big leagues. Shotgun Revolution are the real deal and it won’t be long before their name appears in giant letters on posters at the nearest 15,000-seater near you.
http://www.shotgunrevolution.com/
Facebook : @shotgunrevolution
