Hardcore Superstar – C’mon Take On Me

Published March 06 2013

*=Staff's pick	Cutting The Slack C’mon Take On Me* One More Minute Above The Law Are You Gonna Cry Now Stranger Of Mine* Won’t Take The Blame Pt. 1 Won’t Take The Blame Pt. 2 (Sect Meeting) Dead Man’s Shoes* Because Of You Too Much Business Long Time No See*

Genre	Sleaze Metal	Jocke Berg	Vocals
Tracks	12	Vic Zino	Guitar
Running time	46 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Gain	Martin Sandvik	Bass
Release	27 February 2013	Magnus ”Adde” Andreasson	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboard
Producer	Randy Staub
Similar artists	L.A. Guns, Crashdïet

Labels: Gain Music Entertainment/Sony Music Entertainment in Scandinavia. Nuclear Blast in Europe.

Swedish sleaze metallers Hardcore Superstar have taken a few steps back to a sound much closer to their younger days, meanwhile maintaining their edgy, screaming and cocky rock and roll. With a totally shitty intro followed by stunning songs blended with a couple of fillers, this album doesn’t particularly differ from all their albums released after their awesome self titled album in 2005. This might seem like a negative aspect, but in the end, this album rocks pretty hard.

The title track is the album’s outstanding track and is a faster piece signed with true Hardcore Superstar spirit. The two first singles, One More Minute and Above The Law, released in November respectively January, are both somewhat faint, compared to the blasting first song, with choruses created to be catchy, but who never reach their goals. Are You Gonna Cry Now is way more interesting with a smoother verse and an exploding chorus. Stranger Of Mine is kind of different from Hardcore Superstar’s natural work. It’s part psychedelic and a slow ballad that adds heavy diversity to this release. One of my definite favorite tracks.

The twins, Won’t Take The Blame parts 1 and 2 are two groovy mid-tempo tracks with swinging choruses. I can’t really see the reason to split this song into two though, just because the chorus differs in tempo in part 2. Dead Man’s Shoes is strongly captivating and will hopefully be a contribution to their live sets. Because Of You is a good song with a neat flow, even if the bassplay and groove partly are straight stolen from an old Swedish punkpop band. I can’t see much good with this album’s number one filler, Too Much Business. A track with a boring verse followed by a lame chorus. It should have been better off as a b-side, even if I enjoy the short guitar solo. Long Time No See closes the album and is definitely one of the best songs. A stylish ballad with vocalist Jocke Berg sounding like Phil Lewis of L.A. Guns occasionally. Not the first similarity with that band on this release, I must say.

The guitarplay from Vic Zino is often played with brilliance and his, often too short, solos are much to my liking. He shows that he grows more and more into this band the further he goes. The lyrics are pretty much about family matters and about topics such as no one’s going to fuck you up. This release is just as good as the latest predecessors, even if they probably never will release such a masterpiece as their self titled effort again. 6 chalices to a fully acceptable release.

See also review of: HCSS , Hardcore Superstar

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	5	8	7	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Tobbe