American Dog– This Ain’t The Summer Of Love
Bad Reputation
http://www.badreputation.fr/
Rating: B++
What better way to wind down the summer than with this six song
bundle of joy from America’s favorite canines American Dog.
Messrs Hannon, Theado and Pickens dig into their grimy treasure
trove of goodies to offer the fans a chance to hear a few choice
cover songs, the odd rarity you might have missed the first time
around, as well as a cracking new track from their forthcoming
new CD entitled Mean.
The diehard Blue Oyster Cult fans will recognize the title of
this disc refers to the first song off of their classic
Agents Of Fortune album, and the boys do a fine job of
adding some more balls to what is already a dark track, thus
firmly putting their own boot stamp on it. Next up is the
lumbering beast known as “Mean”. Featuring bassist Michael
Hannon’s snarling vocal and Steve Theado’s searing lead work,
this track is like getting slowly pummeled in the head
repeatedly with a sledge hammer. Effective you say? You better
believe it. If this is indeed only the tip of the iceberg of
what the new record is going to sound like, then the rest of
the album should do its part towards furthering the cause of
global warming because this one smokes! With not a second to
spare the song segues directly into an up tempo run through of
the Kiss classic “God Of Thunder”. While Michael’s vocals here
don’t quite match the sinister level of Gene Simmons’ on the
original, once again I have to give the group full marks for
their choice of covers. If there’s one thing the Dawg never
does, its play it safe. The dark factor increases significantly
with their next offering “A New Evil”. Originally only available
on the European versions of their Red, White, Black and Blue
album, this song been dusted of and deservedly given a second
chance by getting the re-mixed and re-mastered treatment. How
this track wasn’t included on the American version is mind
blowing because this evil little ditty has to be one of the
darkest songs, both lyrically and musically that they’ve ever
laid down on tape. Hannon’s gravel throated delivery on this one
sounds like he opted for a can of Draino instead of frosty cold
one prior to recording his vocals. “Movin’ On” is another
straight ahead and typical Dog barn burner lifted off a German
only Harley Davidson CD released some year back. What better way
to warp this one up than with their own run though of the
classic Motorhead track “Bomber” Think they can’t capture the
ferocious assault of one of their live staples on this studio
version? Think again ‘cause whenever American Dog tackles the
mighty Head, they always do Lemmy and the boys proud.
While it only clocks in around twenty five minutes, that should
still be enough time for you to cram a good six of Milwaukee’s
Best down your gullet all the while pissing off your asshole
neighbors by cranking this one as loud as you possibly can. The
only snag here is the disc is extremely limited with only about
a thousand copies available, so if you don’t already possess
one, by the time you read this they may have all been snatched
up. Check their website at
www.americandog.us and buy
it direct from the bastards themselves if you still can.
-Ryan Sparks
