Named after a Black Label Society album, with a list of likes including Clutch, Texas Hippie Collective, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Jack Daniels, more cut-offs than seven seasons of Sons Of Anarchy and nary a naked chin in sight, German band Blessed Hellride are pretty much what you’d expect; booze stinking fired up cowboy obsessed biker metal with meaty heavy metal riffs and a howling hairy vocalist with a voice like a grizzly on twenty a day. Hey, not a bad place to start, eh?
I hope none of this will sound like damning with faint praise because the muscle heavy sound this lot crank up is pretty darned good. If I walked into a set by this lot it’s be ‘grab a beer and just headbang’ time. After the cowboy twang intro, Blessed Hellride just kinda thump into ‘Helldorado’ and take it from there. It’s thick as all Hell with a soulful hook to the refrain and a nice line in pacing. ‘Devils Ride ‘ is a heads down run that has real heavy guts and reminds me of early Bullet; petrolhead gruff heavy rock/metal with a fine handle on the songwriting. There is great low gear haul ass sound to the riffs without getting bogged down by chug; they start to roll and just keep on rolling. If the quite ridiculous but utterly wonderful ‘Goddamn Hippie’ doesn’t make you grin and ‘Papa Joea doesn’t move your feet then you really are in the wrong ‘Moonshine Saloon’. With ‘Blessed Hellride’ itself, a cards laid out on the green baize table choice of song, nothing hidden beneath and they can do it very well.
There is a real honesty to this band; if they had sleeves that’s where their hearts would be but maybe they left them on the other side of the Atlantic. If you can accept desert rock from Finland though, why not Southern metal from Germany? This is well oiled, fist and piston pumping stuff that has grease under its nails through real labour. No, there is no innovation, nothing new anywhere on this album and the odd riff may sound a little familiar. But that is kinda irrelevant. What you get is thirteen honest, well crafted thumping great riff and lead driven songs bellowed out beautifully and soulfully by a great hairy guy. You get metal and rock and booze and what more do you want? The kind of band you hope get to travel and just enjoy what they do for as long as they can just based on their obvious enthusiasm.
Give them a listen and I bet you start nodding the old noggin.
(7/10 Gizmo)
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