After some self-released singles and an EP, Finland’s SHIRAZ LANE were signed by Frontiers Records and presented this debut CD titled “For Crying Out Loud“, surprising the hard rock community with its confidence. As requested, here’s the Japanese Edition including a bonus track, plus the bonus cut for the European / digital market.
The press release sheet stated; “the debut album ‘For Crying Out Loud’ shows that the band has learnt all the lessons from the giants Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row or Aerosmith, and is ready to take on the world!” Well, there’s no doubt all members in Shiraz Lane have grown listening to these classic acts, but they add their own talent and personal spin to that classic hard rock sound.
Taking the aforementioned bands as reference, to say late Eighties influence is to say that Shiraz Lane plays melodic hard rock with an edge of the big hair, US sleazy variety. Listening, I would describe them indeed as a mash up of Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row, early Dynazty and maybe a little Poison / Cinderella, but with the unmistakable Scandi / Finnish touch.
However, “For Crying Out Loud” delivers a nice, welcomed variation.
‘Wake Up’, the opener, sounds like it jumped out from Skid Row’s debut album where Hannes Kett, the lead singer, with his sleazy and nasty vocals giving an extra flavor to this really stunning tune. In this vein as well, there’s the slippery groove of ‘Momma’s Boy’.
They play with a little AOR feeling with the catchy ‘M.L.N.W. (Make Love Not War)’, while perhaps the heaviest song, but in a heavy, edgy sense, is ‘House Of Cards’, simply for it’s deep bottom end.
‘Begging For Mercy’ is classic ’80s poppy hair metal but infectious and plenty of swagger, crowned by a truly catchy chorus. For your needs of some ass-kickin’ rock ‘n’ roll stuff check out the Motley Crue-esque ‘Mental Slavery’ or the high-energetic title track ‘For Crying Out Loud’.
But some of the more interesting songs come when Shiraz Lane add some subtle blues vibes as with ‘Bleeding’, the rocking ‘Behind The 8-Ball’ and the really good, elaborated ballad ‘Same Ol Blues’.
On “For Crying Out Loud” Shiraz Lane brings back the late ’80s / early ’90s U.S. sleazy hard rock sound with style, adding to the proceedings a Scandinavian touch. We have strong songs and the right attitude from a band with the potential to go on to great things.
Highly Recommended
1 Wake Up
2 Momma'S Boy
3 House Of Cards
4 Begging For Mercy
5 Same Ol' Blues
6 Mental Slavery
7 Behind The 8-Ball
8 For Crying Out Loud
9 Bleeding
10 M.L.N.W.
11 Money Talks (Bonus)
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Shiraz Lane – For Crying Out Loud (Japanese Edition) 2016, MP3+FLAC
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