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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


Related links:

www.gunbarrel.de
www.myspace.com/yourgunbarrel