Review by Andy Hawes for MPM
(Telephone rings)
Crazy Lixx: Hello?
Caller: Hi, is that Crazy Lixx, Swedish Melodic Hard Rockers extraordinaire?
Crazy Lixx: Err, that’ll be us, Dude. How can we help?
Caller: This is 1987 calling. We think you may have got our Melodic Hard Rock? We’d kinda like it back if it’s all the same to you, as it is ours you know!
Crazy Lixx: Aah, c’mon Dude, your Melodic Hard Rock is just the absolute BEST! We just wanna show all the kids today just how utterly awesome, kick ass and ‘partaaayyyy’ you actually were! Far too much morose wrist-slitting gubbins around today, wars everywhere, financial instability, political turmoil…2024 sucks man! The rockers out here today need your stuff man…You put the FUN into rock and there ain’t much of that out there these days. It’s in good hands with us, we promise!
Caller: Ah…Ok… Fab! Thanks very much. As you were, then. Party on Dudes!
Welcome to 1987…errr…I mean the last week of 2024. Can it really be that long since the Melodic Hard Rock heyday of the late 80s? I mean, it only feels like yesterday, Dude! Mind you…I had hair back then…and a smaller waistline… Sigh…
Luckily for me and for all those out there who still hanker for that full on, bombastic, kick ass Melodic Hard Rock scene of the glorious late 1980s, Swedish rockers Crazy Lixx are back with their latest time machine of an album, ready to transport us all back to the heady days of 1987 when Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Dokken, Ratt and a million other wannabees crushed the airwaves with hairspray-fuelled anthems, when sex, drugs and rock n roll weren’t dirty words; when spandex, impossibly huge hair and pink Superstrat guitars were the height of fashion. Aah, the memories!
Thrill of the Bite, Crazy Lixx’s latest magnum opus lives, breathes and exudes that 80s kitsch brilliance from every pore of its being. From the opening seconds to the very last note, this album bombards the listener with mighty chugging riffage, those delightfully ‘sneery’ vocals, widdly-diddly guitar solos, pounding rhythm section and absolutely planert-flatteningly huge and multi-layered ‘shouty’ vocal hooks. Oh yes, it’s all here in absolute spades!
You won’t find a better example of this kinda thing anywhere this year (or next, when it’s actually released!) Mainman Danny Rexxon has that wonderful 80s Hard Rock voice – powerful, chock-full of attitude and bombast, equally able to handle the sometimes cheesy but always fabulous melodic hooks as well as the more ‘shouty’ layers of backing vocal in those monumental choruses.
He fortunately lacks the nasal screechiness of Motley Crue’s Vince and the inherent slightly whiny sleaze vibe that plagued Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy even in their bands’ heydays and he has enough identity to totally own these tracks, at times sounding a little like a young Joe Elliot (Def Leppard). This is a very good thing!
Yes, we’ve heard all this all before many, many times. There is absolutely nothing new under the sun here, but somehow it just doesn’t matter. And it won’t matter if you’re a 17 year-old in your bedroom struggling with raging hormones and your first guitar riffs or whether, like me, you’re a slightly jaded and ‘almost past it’ 60 year old reliving past glories (or anything in between), there’s just something totally infectious and utterly relevant about the bubblegum brilliance of ‘Highway Hurricane’, ‘Who Said Rock n Roll is Dead?’, ‘Call of the Wild’ and the utterly glorious ‘Midnight Rebels’.
Then there is the quite astounding ‘Hunt for Danger’, probably the most AOR of the tracks on offer here which had me screaming along by the second playthrough, fist in the air, leaping round the living room with an enormous Cheshire Cat grin on my face as the hook pummels its way into my brain. (The look on my 16 year-old son’s face is priceless at this point, although even he’s nodding his head to the pounding rhythms here!) These days ‘danger’ is the last thing I’m looking for – a good cup of cocoa would be more welcome, but with a couple of plays of this track, invincibility beckons and I’m in my early 20s again. (Well, in my head at least! Sigh…)
By now, you’re possibly thinking ‘all this 80s nostalgia is all very well, but where’s the relevance? Where is the creativity to produce something new and unique?’ All potentially good and valid questions, but utterly pointless in the context of this excellent band and this wonderful album.
This is all about paying highly affectionate homage to a time that is now almost mythical, almost legendary in its scope and Crazy Lixx do this kind of thing better than pretty much any other band has in almost 40 years! Their overwhelming love of this kind of music shines through in every over-the-top vocal hook, every riff, every solo and in every self-affirmative ‘never say die’ lyric. The world is a cruddy place these days and we all need a bit of escapism in our lives.
With Thrill of the Bite, Crazy Lixx provide us with just that and with it a glimpse into a world that possibly never quite existed in the way we think it did, but certainly should have. They provide us with a wall-to-wall blast of pure adrenalin-fuelled fun. Gloriously uptempo, (Ballads? What ballads?), and without a serious politically thought-provoking bone in its body, it’s an album designed to be played at earth-shattering volume while cruising down the boulevard to your next unspeakably wild house party.
So, hitch up the spandex strides, tease the hair to heights hitherto undreamed of, unpack the air-guitar, crack a beer (or several) and bask in the pure and unadulterated glory of Crazy Lixx and the utterly fabulous Thrill of the Bite. As track two reminds us so powerfully: “Who said Rock n Roll is dead?” I can definitely confirm that it’s very much alive, well and indeed thriving in the glorious grooves of this monumental slice of pure fun!
Absolutely, completely and utterly essential listening for anyone who loves good time, hook-filled, kick-ass Melodic Hard Rock, it’s released on Feb 14th 2025, so do your significant other a massive favour and buy it for ‘em for Valentine’s Day! It’s guaranteed to get your Valentine’s party rockin’!!
PRE-ORDER HERE
“Thrill Of The Bite” Tracklist:
1. Highway Hurricane
2. Who Said Rock N’ Roll Is Dead
3. Little Miss Dangerous
4. Call Of The Wild
5. Recipe For Revolution
6. Run Run Wild
7. Midnight Rebels
8. Hunt For Danger
9. Final Warning
10. Stick It Out
Line Up:
Danny Rexon – Vocals
Jens Lundgren – Guitar
Chrisse Olsson – Guitar
Jens Andersson – Bass
Robin Nilsson – Drums
