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05.19.13

• Nightglow: We Rise
• Echotime: Genuine
• Silentlie: Blood Under Snow (EP)
• Quicksilver Messenger Service: Live at the Fillmore East June 7 1968
• Beef Supreme: Royal Bitch (EP)
• Lady Beast: Lady Beast
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05.12.13

• UDO: Steelhammer
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05.05.13

• Slow Burning Car: Assumption
• Atropos Project: Equator
• Zenit: The Chandrasekhar Limit
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04.28.13

• U.D.O.: Live In Sofia
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• Surgeon: Chemical Reign
• Artizan: Ancestral Energy
• Dendera: The Killing Floor
• Vigilance: Queen of the Midnight Fire
• Saffire: From Ashes to Fire

[ More Music Reviews ]

Bullet: Highway Pirates

Hard Rock/Heavy Metal

3.5/5.0

Black Lodge Records
Website MySpace
by Craig Hartranft,  01.17.2011

I still think they sound like AC/DC. Rather than a charm, Bullet's third release, Highway Pirates, is simple consistency. Bullet's still delivering the gritty and catchy hard rock that made their Aussie peers famous. Yet, something seems different. I hope it's not my imagination or simple wishful thinking. On Highway Pirates Bullet seems to given their sound a more (melodic) heavy metal edge. Certainly that rocking boogie style is underneath it all but songs like Fire and Dynamite, Stay Wild, Highway Pirates, and Heavy Metal Dynamite sound like traditional NWOBHM meets AC/DC. Maybe AC/DC meets Accept? Not sure about that blend.

But, as I said, maybe I'm just want to believe that Bullet can step out of that huge shadow. One positive thing is certain: with all those telltale AC/DC signs, there is a greater depth and breadth to the arrangements on Highway Pirates. On 2009's Bite the Bullet everything seemed to run together. Not this time; there's better variation across the entire disc. If anything, there's the real advancement of Bullet. Into the Night and Knuckleduster are evidence. Nevertheless, for all my hopeful expectations, or lack there of, Bullet still sounds like AC/DC, just more metal-ish.

For all my hopeful expectations, or lack there of, Bullet still sounds like AC/DC, just more metal-ish. Yet this work shows greater maturity with better song craftsmanship.

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