Blue Cheer - What Dosen't Kill You...

[Angryhydralisk]

I don't think I'll ever spend 19 dollars on a cd and enjoy it this much for a while. I'm also pretty sure I'll never enjoy buying at FYE again. But yeah, this band started in what, 1968? And they can still write competent music?

How many bands can you name that could use some of that? Competence.

Anyways, this album is truly for those into classic 70s rock or maybe even a bit of 80s rock and they play it LOUD! It's moody and has a little bit of everything from up-tempo hard rock to something that'd fit right at home with a Pentagram album. I also think it's good that they managed to get the original drummer for some of the tracks. Older than dirt, no doubt, but he can still drum kinda like he did on Vincebus Eruptum. Speaking of old, Dickie Peterson sounds old and raggedy, but he can still deliver even if he sounds like a complete maniac.

I'd say the songs aren't absolute perfection, but some come close enough, like the ham-fisted-yet-smoking-good Rollin' Dem Bones and Gypsy Woman, which would feel right at home on a Pentagram album. Plus they even do a newer take on an old classic (Just a Little Bit), which is the best display that these old fuckers still got after all these years. Sure, there's a couple tracks that don't stick as well as others. No Relief is okay, but 9 minutes of laid-back rock that goes nowhere is hard to blow up or NOT compare to some other track. It's also a bit lengthy at 55 minutes but at least the tracks are good, especially compared to the stuff they were writing in the early seventies!

All-in-all one of the best things I've picked up this year for sure, or at least the one sparking my optimism the most. Not even out of bias or love for a particular genre, but just for showing that this band hasn't lost it and they only got better through it all. Why's it gotta stop all the other bands? Oh yeah, those bands are probably mainstream. My bad.