From
the sound of The Darkness' debut Permission To Land, they
have been waiting to descend since the late 70's but the cushy
airliners of Judas Priest, Queen and Kiss were presumably
blocking the runway. As if straight out of a time capsule
The Darkness comes to us from the U.K. in what may be the
NEW New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The album unquestionably
harks back to beloved old school metal with the testicle retracting
falsetto of "Growing On Me" and the foot stomping, mullet
waving ferocity of "Black Shuck" or the Scorpion-esque lead
guitar high harmony which ignites the lighter flickering ballad
"Love is Only a Feeling". Their lyrical debauchery in "Get
Your Hands Off My Woman" ("I've got no right to lay claim
to her frame/She's not my possession/You cunt/Get Your hands
off my woman motherfucker") raises the A.W.K. question. Do
these guys just plain rock too hard to be serious?
On
the first reading of the aforementioned lyrics the answer
would seem to be "no", they do write viciously. However, the
machismo of the written word is sure to bring out a sly smile
instead of a switch blade when those lyrics are shrieked in
a pitch so high it makes Mariah Carey sound like Isaac Hayes.
Besides, the cheese wiz tenderness of the power ballad "I
Believe in a Thing Called Love" is just too hammy to be anything
but a clever and catchy homage to their förefathers. At last,
metal that you don't have to be a meathead to enjoy (I'm looking
your way Pantera), or the product of a wretched home life
with a penchant for introspection (cough, cough Staind) or
an enemy of melody (bark, bark Hatebreed). Guitar solos, plus
cock rock swagger with a British accent equals a jumbo sized
cucumber stuffed firmly in spandex worth of fun.
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