There are frankly an incomprehensible number of genres and sub-genres in the music that I, and as a reader of this website you presumably love. A wee scan through the couple of hundred gigabytes of albums I have ripped to iTunes (other music software is available) came up with dozens and dozens, let alone the many types enjoyed by the diverse contributors to Ave Noctum that I wouldn’t have in the house. French trio Sticky Boys, with their third release ‘Calling The Devil’ don’t bother with any such pigeon-holing (I’m sure that will get you on a register in the UK!), and just call themselves Rock, with a capital “R”.

Instrumental intro ‘In Confidence’ hints at the simple stripped back approach, a mission statement almost, one that is stamped firmly in place with hard rocker ‘Better Days’, a no nonsense melding of guitar, bass, drums, vocals, and energy; nothing is over complicated, fiddly or flashy, just a fist pumping, foot stomping chug of a number. This is a tried and tested formula the band stick to for a grand total of 14 tracks barged into a drum tight 45 minute album. ‘Good Morning Sunshine’ shouts its message to the rooftops in a fast flurry, ‘Tough Machine’ ups a gear and ups the anger without stopping for a breath, whilst the punk quotient is upped in ‘The Lonely Tree’, despite having the practically Prog-like length of four and a half minutes compared to the rest of the album, even though follow up sub 2 minute number ‘The Vision’ sounds like it should be the opening bars of a Yes opus with its acoustic plucking and dreamy vocals. To be honest, many bands would have shunted ‘The Vision’ together with follow up track ‘An Afternoon In The Park’ to produce a single ‘lighters in the air’ number for their live show, but not this Gallic three piece.

Normal service resumes with ‘Ready To Go’, and it would be easy to imagine that far from being raised on a musical diet of Johnny Hallyday, Messieurs Kourelis, Chesnot and Bullot instead spent their formative days indulging on a steady intake of The Ramones, The Clash, and their hard rocking descendants such as The Almighty, a band they undoubtedly share the same heritage with. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the title track ‘Calling The Devil’ which could have as easily been born in Glasgow as it was actually born in Paris, a number of fire, working class anger and stomping rage. Album closer ‘Elvis 666’ sums up their ethos of nothing but Rock with the battle cry of “I threw away my bullet belt and threw away my spikes”, a call to kick against the many sub-divisions of music and just have fun if ever I heard one.

There is nothing overly complicated on ‘Calling The Devil’, no arcing concept pieces, no attempts to ram religious or political views down unwilling throats, just a heartfelt and sincere slab of rock. For that the Sticky Boys deserve a solid round of applause.

(7.5/10 Spenny)

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