German / Aussie feel-good rockers SWEET ELECTRIC are releasing today their debut album titled “The Monsters Are Rising”. The band formed in 2022 and has been on a whirlwind rise, with multiple international tours, performing on national TV for Rockpalast and amassing a legion of rock n roll fans along the way.
“We are still a new band, our debut show was 18 months ago. But we have written some banging tunes and
Lest we forget Brad Marr, when he was the singer in Melbourne’s Massive—who should have been, well, massive (if you’ll excuse the clanging pun)—he liked it over in Europe so much that he moved over. When that band imploded before the pandemic, he moved to Germany, and Sweet Electric was born.
they deserve to be put on record.” says Australian-born frontman Brad Marr.
”Rock and roll is dead” screams a voice at the start of opening cut “Heir To The Throne.” What follows is basically a middle finger to the idea. It is immediately clear from second track “Leading The Blind” that this is possibly a little more melodic music than what Marr had done before, but even more importantly, guitarists Mike Schneider and Michi Krol are a sensational double act—one with a sneer on their faces but a boogie in their hearts.
I’m prepared to bet that SWEET ELECTRIC are a mighty proposition live too. “Hey Kid” is obviously made for stages—and if that one is perhaps a little more like Massive, then “Killer Katharina” proves that Marr can roar like any classic rock great. They have a knack for making choruses infectious too.
“Hard Times” has clearly heard its share of AC/DC, but let’s be honest here, there are worse hard rock groups you could borrow from. “Living It Up” is funky fun—sort of like Extreme playing in a dive bar. But if you were looking for proof that this is a riff-based rocker at its heart, then “Piece Of The Pie,” a critique of 2024, is all you need to know.
That said, there are more strings to their bow than that. “Holy Water” is neither the Southern Rock thing I’d assumed nor the ballad it might have been, instead coming on as expansive and ambitious.
Both of those words could apply to the album as a whole, as they basically go full-on Aerosmith for the change of pace that is “Sober,” on which Marr goes for a kind of stream-of-consciousness approach as he empties his soul. At over seven minutes in length, it is comfortably the album’s most epic moment, as well as being one of its best.
Frequently, the five-piece writes things that are at once familiar and fresh. The groovy closing track, “Monsters,” is one of those moments—and the gear change in the bridge before the solo is an absolute cracker.
In the notes they sent with “The Monsters Are Rising” promotional material they said this: “The album is 41 minutes of action-packed retro rock ‘n’ roll.”
That’s true, of course, but it also needs to be said that Sweet Electric is selling itself short. It sounds classic, yes, maybe even retro, but most of all, it sounds fresh. As debut albums go, it points to a band on the rise.
Highly Recommended
01 - Heir To The Throne.mp3
02 - Leading The Blind.mp3
03 - Hey Kid.mp3
04 - Killer Katharina.mp3
05 - Hard Times.mp3
06 - Living It Up.mp3
07 - Piece Of The Pie.mp3
08 - Holy Water.mp3
09 - Sober.mp3
10 - Monster.mp3
Sweet Electric – The Monsters Are Rising 2024
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