Gun Barrel - Outlaw Invasion

Published March 19 2008

*=Staff's pick	Invasion Warning Front Killers* Turn To Black Wanted Man* The Redeemer Keep On Movin' Cheap, Wild & Nasty Brother To Brother* Ghost Inside M.I.L.F. Tomorrow Never Comes Outlaw Invasion Parting Kiss

Genre	Heavy Metal	Xaver Drexler	Vocals
Tracks	13	Rolf Tanzius	Guitar
Runningtime	53 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Limb Music	Tomcat Kintgen	Bass
Release	11 April 2008	Toni Pinciroli	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboard
Similar artists	Motörhead, AC/DC

If you know your Gun Barrel, you will certainly recognise and enjoy this album too. Not much has changed since the last album, or from the beginning for that matter. The heavy'n'rollers from Cologne, Germany are true to their style and are heading straight forward on their beaten path on this their fourth full lenght album, following up Power-Dive (2001), Battle-Tested (2003) and Bombard Your Soul (2005).

The foundation is as always dirty rock'n'roll dressed in a heavy metal outfit. It is overall a light, relaxed, feel-good and "happy" tone and is guess describing it as party-like metal is not far from the truth. Catchy riffs and very good, raspy vocals as always from Xaver Drexler are the band's biggest assets. However I don't feel that the songs have the right edge to them this time. Enjoyable, yes, but the are no real hits to be found here apart from the opening Front Killers and perhaps a couple more depending on mood when I'm listening to it.

A good release as always from Gun Barrel but nothing exceptional this time. Unfortunatly the three least good songs have happened to be next to each other in the tracklist (Ghost Inside, M.I.L.F., Tomorrow Never Comes) which destroys the momentum a bit and the album in on its way on its knees for a while but it manages to rise again at the end albeit only for one song, the title track, since Parting Kiss in an outro.

On a personal note, I would like to hear some better and more catchy refrains next time and preferrably a bit higher tempo, but apart from that I'd love to see the band keep producing albums in the same vein for a long time to come. There will always be a market for this kind of heavy metal/rock. I guess the biker culture in Germany will not complain either.

See also review of: Bombard Your Soul , Battle-Tested , Power-Dive

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	6	7,5	7	5

Summary
5,5 chalices of 10 - Tommy