Rose Tattoo - Blood Brothers

Published Feb. 28 2007

*=Staff's pick	Black Eyed Bruiser* Slipping Away Once In A Lifetime* 1854* City Blues Sweet Meat Man About Town Creeper* Stand Over Man Nothing To Lose Lubricated

Genre	Hard Blues Rock	Angry Anderson	Vocals
Tracks	11	Mick Cocks	Guitar
Runningtime	41 Min.	Dai Pritchard	Guitar
Label	Dragonheart	Steve King	Bass
Release	16 Feb. 2007	Paul DeMarco	Drums
Country	Australia	-	Keyboard
Similar artists	AC/DC, The Angels, Blackfoot

Legendary Australians Rose Tattoo are back. Not a given thing since no less than two long time band members have perished the last year, founding member Peter Wells (guitar) and former member Ian Rilen (bass). Reluctantly frontman Angry Anderson decided that the best way to honour them was to keep Rose Tattoo on the road for yet many years. Blood Brothers is a first test of strength for the new lineup, and it passes with distinction. Angry's characteristic and charismatic voice is still the fundament, and the soul is still alive in the music. This despite of the loss of main songwriter Peter Wells. Newcomer Dai Pritchard slides his guitar in a way that would make his predecessor proud.

Black Eyed Bruiser sets the tone straight away as a piece of old school hard rock 'n' roll. Actually it is a piece of old school rock 'n' roll - a cover of a Stevie Wright song from the 70s. Hard blues rock song Once In A Lifetime is 1977 and 2007 in one. 1854 is about the Eureka-Stockade-rebellion wherein Australian workers fought for democratic rights, but were crushed by the British military. This showing that Angry can write about more than beer, bikes and girls. City Blues is a bit too soft, repetitive and stretched out to fill my needs. Sweet Meat has a bit Shout At The Devil over the riff. But after a small dip the stone hard boogie metal track Creeper brings us back to the path of quality. Angry performs better than ever with his soar throat on this one.

However, Blood Brothers does not manage to keep it up all over the finish line. The three last songs are fast rockers, but of standard quality. Lubricated is almost a bit punk rock, which does not appeal to me. Angry is happy, because he does what he love. That is the spirit of true rock 'n' roll. And that makes me happy as well.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	7	6	8	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - David