On the first track of the Baltimore based band Charm City Devils’ new album Let’s Rock-N-Roll, frontman John Allen yells out, “Let’s rock and roll/I’m just an endless road/I guess I sold my soul/I gave everything I had to rock and roll.” It sounds like an innocent enough collection of incoherent thoughts, but as I listened to it, the vocals placed in the forefront of the crunching guitars and tiresome drum beat, I wondered how this type of music became the definition of ‘rock-n-roll.’ The sound that the Charm City Devils have created seems to owe more to Dee Snider and Nikki Sixx (the latter just so happens to be president of the band’s record label) than Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley. Hair metal and Post-Grunge is what the mainstream seems to consider good old rock and roll now days; but trust me, there’s nothing good about the mundane, recycled sound of the Charm City Devils.
If you do like the first track on the album, the one I quoted earlier, then you should love the rest of the album. Each song basically follows the same structure, steady distorted guitars and worn out drum beats accompanied by Allen’s ugly yelp of a voice. There are a few songs that switch gears, such as the ballad “Best of the Worst” and the acoustic “Almost Home,” but for the most part each song is almost sonically identical to the next. After only a few songs, the sounds begin to blend together, allowing only the painfully dull lyrics to separate each track. Winners like “I wish they’d eat all my cancer/When I don’t want back” and “A fly on the dog shit/A fly on your hand/Turning piss into art/Nobody Understands,” are commonplace on most of the 11 songs.
While it’s always easy to make fun of bands that find their most apparent influences in hair metal music, the hard part is finding something to praise. But, if you look hard enough, there are pleasant surprises buried underneath all the “piss art.” For fans of mindless hard rock, the album is definitely a fleeting distraction. While Allen’s voice is Chad Kroeger levels of unbearable, there is a good deal of palpable confidence on the more raucous songs and it can even be toned down to accompany the sometimes charming ballads. Speaking of these ballads, if there’s one song you should hear from the Charm City Devils’ debut, it’s the ultra-personal “Almost Home,” a lament about Allen’s father that features the most heart felt and coherent lyrics on the disc.
While people may tell you that the Charm City Devils find their influences in better hard rock acts like AC/DC or Aerosmith, the most obvious sounds you’ll hear is the crude glam metal of the 1980’s, though it’s also hard not to compare them to bands like label mates Buck Cherry and Hinder. This is hard rock gone bad, where crunching guitars and throaty vocals are the only substance you get, it’s not daring or innovative in any way, it’s just recycled and flat out boring. There is enjoyment to be had on Let’s Rock-N-Roll, it’s just not for someone like me, who still thinks of rockabilly music when someone mentions ‘rock-n-roll.’ The Charm City Devils can ‘rock-n-roll’ all they want, I’m sure a good mess of people will enjoy it, but I’m definitely not one of them.
"Let's Rock-N-Roll" is on sale May 26, 2009 from Eleven Seven.
