AIRBOURNE BLACK DOG BARKING Review : DISAPPOINTINGLY BRILLIANT !!!

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For about the last 22 Years - Since Hollywood Liberals thrust the Seattle Band Nirvana upon all of us, Rock music ( And Society in general ),.. has taken an obvious and intentional dive. ( You're not 'cool' if you haven't taken that Dive. ),.. Not just in Live Performances but of course also in the Songwriting and Lyrics department and you have heard unwitting people moan on much more than one thousand occasions at places like Youtube and Facebook that "Music sucks now",..and "Rock is dead" and that we are living in a "Post Rock" world,.. times ..

And We are indeed.

Enter Airbourne:

Youngish 20-something guys all born in the 1980's who drink a lot and get laid a lot too and also know very little about anything - and Thank God !!

It's bloody refreshing ! ( I say in my best Auzzie-accent ),.. I must say how these guys are very honestly and obviously 'NOT' Socially conscious ,..and at all !!

And they can't be either !! Especially Being that they were probably all four or five years old in 1992 when Bill Clinton was elected President,.. 

Same as that Political Genius Lady Ga Ga...

Truth is, Airbourne are an enigma few can figure out - A very bizarre thing indeed smack-dab in today's world,.. 

Yeah ,..we all beheld the Fabulous Darkness who miraculously somehow arose out of the UK a decade ago and they were amazing ,.. but yet Airbourne somehow seem even more authentic and one can analyze them and see how they could improve,.. those 40 and up who remember Fastway and Triumph at least !

Yes - They could be much better still ,... But I guess I will accept the Airbourne evolution i guess as it goes ,... being that these guys are quite clearly and obvious some of the only "Saviors of Rock" that are out there now ,..

Airbourne's 1980's Hard Rocking heavy metal infusion into our boring Green Day / Nickelback / Hip Hop Clinton then Obama-Media Controlled Matrix World was very refreshing back in 2007 and 2008 when their Major Label Debut 'Runnin' Wild' was released ( Or I should say Unleashed ) and maybe even accidentally by Roadrunner Records and the band then toiled on Side stages ( Unfairly ,..and also maybe with intentional poor marketing ) at Festivals like Mayhem 2008 and then Rock Star Energy Drink Uproar 2010. ( Note: They had a previous self release back in the old country called 'Ready to Rock' back in the early to mid 00's,.. that curiously more resembled Aussie standard radio band's like Jet and Wolfmother ,..before clearly seeing the proper rock n roll light - guided there by producers or somebody or otherwise,.. ),..

The band ripped it up at their shows,.. sometimes performing before tiny crowds who today may hardly remember them ,..but I was there - and I very much Do !! But they also landed some large venues with a fixed crowd that 'had' to watch them,.. complete with Lead Vocalist / Guitarist Joel O'Keeffe climbing the stage railings high into the air,..

Those were the true Glory days of Australia's new thunder from down under ,..who then later moved on to massive gigs like Download in the UK and Wacken in Germany,.. blasting crowds in 2008, 09, 2010, and parts of 2011 before disappearing into a mild hiatus to record this new disc.

In April of 2010, the band released a third album ( Second with Roadrunner) called "No Guts No Glory" and it was quickly exposed that these hard rockers were Pro stage-men and not necessarily Great songwriters or even musicians ,..

That 2010 album had neither the guts nor the glory of the 2007/08' Rock n roll masterpiece that preceded it by a couple of years,...and it was nowhere near as fun or brutal though it hella' tried !!

Producer Johnny K pulled great performances out of the band and indeed, there were about four or five great songs that are almost unimprovable ( "Chewin' the fat" and Armed and Dangerous come rocketing straight to mind ) ,..

But on this brand new album, Airbourne seem more than lost as these songs are obviously repetitious almost to the immediate point of annoying..... EVEN AND MAYBE ESPECIALLY TO THE MOST ARDENT AGED CLASSIC ROCKER ,... The good news is there is NOT a new song here as bad as 'Blonde, Bad, and Beautiful'. The bad news is this album seems way too short at just barely over a half an hour in length - Quite surprising indeed,.. almost as if there's been some budgetary issues with the band and Roadrunner ,..and maybe a back-office ultimatum or two ,.. Synopsis: THERE IS SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH FUCKING MUSIC HERE AND THE MUSIC THAT THERE IS SEEMS SPARSE, STARK, AND INCONSISTENT and to say the very least !

{ Note: The album artwork is also certainly simple ,..and seems to cut mega-corners too and possibly budgetarily  ,..and the words are so small, it will take somebody with 20/15 vision to read them with a really really good magnifying glass }...

Anyway,..

This album tries to come roaring out of the speakers as the band redoes their own "Ready to Rock" cover from their first Lp from 2004/5' complete with Soccer Crowd styled chants ,... I guess for Stadium's Gigs to come,.. ( This may work with other bands - Maybe Dragonforce and Maiden - but this doesn't work with Airbourne and how ! Trust me there ! ) ,..and believe me: 'That' is quite a surprise too ! As You would expect only the most solid of solid new tracks to come booming out of this record - and immediately ! Not a redeux of an earlier track ,.. and a cut that was really not that good to begin with ,..

For as energetic as this albums seems, it comes off as quite stale at bits and cranking it up doesn't necessarily fix the situation ,..and many of the songs seem like tracks you have heard before ,..and not just from other bands ,..but rather from Airbourne themselves. Hooks that almost worked like "Steel Town" and 'Raise the Flag'  from the last album seem to be recycled here as well as song parts that sound a bit too much like old tracks from Skidrow ( Slave to the Grind ) as well as too much Adornment and praise for Joe Elliot circa 1982 and some of the guitar bits heard in cuts like Hellfire and Black Jack come a popping back up too here . In many ways, this album almost seems like an attempt to redo the 2007 album both in record sleeve cover jacket and in sound too ,..but it fails miserably,.. ( But there is good things happening on this record here and there - it just never quite gets it all together ).. To be fair, 'Runnin' was an epic ,.. on par with rock's Greatest albums,..

Where that album struck gold with tracks like Runnin' Wild and Diamond in the Rough and many more , this album seems desperate everywhere for a hook and only finds it in about three places on a couple of songs,.. 'Cradle to the Grave' is one of them for certain -

What's worst of all to me is how this record seems not even nearly as good as "No Guts" a record that struggled in it's own rite ,... Believe me ...there is nothing here as ballsy as Overdrive or even Born to Kill ( a song which wasn't as good as anything on that first major release album ),..

Just like most other bands from today,..Airbourne are getting worse - not better- with each new release but I really wouldn't even completely blame them but rather the label who probably pushes these producers upon the band ,..and ones who don't understand the group at all !! ( And all the Pro-Tools Digital technology today is hindering,.. not helping bands now ,.,. the ol' mistakes of yesterday's songs is partially what makes them so great ,...the Who's Tommy is a lousy album that is full of flaws,..but when you are sitting naked in your hot bath and listening to it up loud ,..those flaws - and all the room for improvement - are the things that make it so damn great !! )

Airbourne could use some outside songwriting advice and maybe even mix in some badly needed Beatles and Dylan minor chords ,..but even more than that,..because they are dealing with a long gone style of 1980's rock which they are clearly trying to revive a scene of,.. they need to take to the streets themselves and gin up a team ,..if they are going to keep mining old Def Leppard, Krokus, and AC DC stylings,....

I like Heavy metal and cheesy hard rock and I would love to see it come back and if Dave Grohl and Green Day shared a plane that suddenly dove into the Pacific ,... I would welcome that as a sign from God that rock is ATLAST once again turning and changing - evolving like it did back in 1969 through 71' ,..but if Airbourne are gonna be the catalysts to do it, they gotta be much better than this,.. They are hardly today's Zeppelin or Who !!    

Airbourne have the energy - glorious energy and understanding even ,... but they need help ,..and this album clearly shows it.

Final Note; The young people from today getting into this record - and who could likely push this new 2013 trendy thang high into the charts at Billboard World Wide ,..a Welcome first for Airbourne - are actually catching the death rattle of this band as they clearly missed out on what was the glory days long ago ,... and to me THAT is a major factor BUMMER !!

At the end of it all,... I will still wave a devil horned salute ala' Dio to Airbourne and I will urgently and frantically declare this: That these guys are one million times better than Metallica or Foo Fighters ,..and they ARE currently one of the best bands in the world - their Songwriter woes or not,..and I will admit that at times, this new record put a smile on my face and I wanted to hear it again curiously ,..even after bloody hating it the first few times ,..at the end, I have to admit that if you sit there and crank this thing up loud ,..and especially if you are a newby to Airbourne ,..You are gonna feel like that feeling at LAX Airport in El Segundo on Pershing Avenue if you pull your car over to the side of the road directly under a massive 747 ,...

Will this album be "THE ALBUM" ,.,,ya know ,.. 'THAT ALBUM' FOR Airbourne ?? The Way Pyromania was or Back in Black was ,..or 'Who's Next' was ?? I frankly think that it definitely 'WILL' BE ! There are enough unknowledgeable kids running around now ,..and who are just gonna eat this thing up AND on the wings of the word of all the past hype  ,... it could be one of those million seller big thangs,.. and being that it really is their "Fourth' album ,..that indeed is a big sign ...

Will this finally be the album to erase Hip Hop and Jayz & total complete Douchebag fuckers like Dave Grohl and also those throngs of Roaring Grovel Voiced bands like Killswitch or crap like Creed and Puddle of Mudd ,..I don't think so ,..

Unless Airbourne wants to speak up,..

And really "be" Number One !!

And I'm not so sure the boys from Down under are ready for that kind of World Leadership role - Because that takes all kindsa' hella knowledge ,...AND I MEAN ABOUT E-V-E-R-Y-THING !!

Final Note; It is a miracle that these guys got signed to a major label at all and that they aren't stuck back in Brisbane or Perth playing in pubs ,.. The boys need to know how fortunate that they have been if they don't know it already ,...and Thank God because our World is much better for it !!

Same can be said for the Darkness and maybe Dragonforce too,..

Oh I know what they'll all say ,..that the boys are really good and of course they were gonna be found ,.... but don't lean on that 'cause the whole world knows Shark was really good too ,... and nobody ever found me ,..

I Like the "Concept" of Airbourne, forget the songs or stage: The 1980's Retard torn jeans, The obvious Freedom aspects, the sneering and smug smirks and middle fingers in the face of all things liberal and politically correct from today's vapid and shallow Obama-World. Airbourne follow no rules except ones from the late 70's and 1980's and the best part is these guys barely even know they are doing it themselves and might not even know what the hell I am talking about here - they are so natural ! These guys are very real and very extremely dangerous ,...almost terrorists to lily white places like Europe and Blue parts of the USA ,...and when they really do get an album of no filler and all hits and produced by Mutt Lang, they then really will take over and change our world - For better or for worse !!

These guys are truly crazy real wild men - even self destructive and insane  as Joel O'Keeffe defiantly continues to very foolishly climb about stages , risking a fall ,... a fatal and permanent fall ,..that would end Airbourne but turn him into today's Bon Scott.,... though in the name of rock n' roll, he HAS TO Do it ! He 'don't need your advice about life' as he frightfully sneers in songs like "No Way but the hard way" and the new 'Cradle' and he's perfectly OK maybe even too with Death in the fast lane,...Geez Fuck man ,..sometimes I almost cringe in fear at reading these guys' lyrics that are somehow even more convincing and committed than the punkiest of punk rock - but in that long gone nowhere to be found today 1980's way !!! Yeah - Joel strikes me as a guy who maybe might not be here much longer - because he's too real and committed to all of this ,..

And all I know is..... then, there would never be another Airbourne ,...

And in today's world, that would be quite bad !!

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1. Ready To Rock - My Opinion is this was a bad choice for opening Song in a similar way to 'Born to Kill' from 'No Guts'.... A better one may have been "Live it up" itself or "Cradle to the Grave". Cardinal Sins here include that grotesque 'Soccer chant' part which really lends this thing into a corporate direction that is too unlike Airbourne of the past - Synopsys : Almost 'filler' ,..but as an intro ?? Go Figure !

2: "Animalize" - This song just kicks so much ridiculous ass that it almost makes you forget that it's just a Def Leppard Cover Produced by Mutt Lang from either Hysteria or Pyromania I forget which,..complete with Vocals with special Guest Joe Elliot himself courtesy of EMI RECORDS ,... NO Just kidding ! THIS really is Airbourne ,..and being damn clever for one of their first times as they finally pull off a truly remarkable chameleon effort ! They brilliantly escape the AC DC Sound and Pigeon Hole here with a track  that rocks with melody almost too big and too robust to be Airbourne ! Who ever produced this knew it too !

3: No One fits Me: This song almost took me the very first time I played it ,..but it almost just as Quickly Lost me too. A good little track but unfortunately not great and nowhere in the realm of earlier works like 'Get Busy Livin' or 'Chewin' the fat'. Something about this just struck me as 80's rock like Motley Crue or something that tried way too hard without really understanding the 80's enough,..

4: Back in the game: This little track angered me particularly as it redoes the earlier Airbourne song 'Steel Town' with new bells and whistles added ,..but then it loses it's mind and does the ultimate as it samples "Slave to the Grind" by Skidrow who is a Lame band that I always hated ! Opportunity Missed here: They all shoulda yelled "Bang bang" at that one part in the chorus ,..it woulda made it funnier ,..and took the edge off the obvious rip off,.. Synopsys : I hate this song but it will fucking rock live ,... especially when the crowd is all really drunk and or stoned,..

5: Firepower : This tedious little track commits a lot of Sins. It's a filler tune that obviously plainly should have been left on the cutting room floor or been a B-Side released some other day. It lifts parts from the Red Rocker Sammy Hagar's ( A Rock Gods No No and for many reasons ) 'There's only one Way' ,...and this is all just the start. I fast forwarded through this one Already quite much as it tries to be a quick little in and out rocker in the vein of "Hell fire" from that 2007 classic epic shot in the arm disc,... but it doesn't come close ,.. Result: Needless filler,.. ( And I hate how it fades out - Almost like they all ( Band and Producers too ) gave up on it anyway ...,,in the control room ),... and maybe with not much laughter ( But some ),..

6: Live it Up - Awe,.. the epic track Six ,...'Shoulda been the first song ,..not Number 6 ,.. it's a classic ,..loaded with killer songwriter ideas ,.. and it damn near saves this whole fucking album !!

7; Woman Like that - At first, this may appear filler ,.. but this thing kinda kicks some ass as it displays this record improving late in it's game ,..much like 'No Guts' did in 2010 !! A solid good little song here ! This song seems to ape backing vocal ideas from the 1969 Kink's song from Arthur "Brainwashed",.. and that is almost awesome !!!!

8; Hungry - This song kicks ass ,... but it could have even been much better,.. and that's the bummer !! Still ,..Live,..this thing is gonna cause riots in the crowd,..

9; Cradle to the Grave - Someday 50 years from now when they all look back at Airbourne, this one may just go down as one of their greatest songs - A foot stomping boogie that grooves slow as it fondly recalls 'Get busy Livin's energy and craft,.. Why this song was put #8 and not #2 or 1 or 3 i'll never know ! 

10; Black Dog Barking - Throw away filler but that really almost rocked me !! In the tradition ( almost ) of Hellfire and those two faster cuts from No guts ,... 'Coulda been way better here ,.. { Some of these songs shoulda had sped up endings ala' 'Armed and Dangerous' ,..and that woulda' been punky and kick ass !

Further Notes; The Main problem that faces Airbourne is still the fact that these guys are 'representing' the sound of the 1980's without having really lived back in those Van Halen times themselves. If you attended the 1983 Us Festival and or lived back in those times listening to Fleetwood Mac, Loverboy, or Rush, ,....Growing up on Klos Fm and KMET with Joe Bensen and Jim Ladd and Later listening to KNAC, You might be really offended and insulted at the very notion or thought of Airbourne - or you might rejoice and Thank the gods for them ,.... it is the paradox that will always confront this band ,..and all the young people from today getting into them won't save them from against elderly rock sages ,..who also know well about the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith ,... it's just tough to really convince people today how rock n' roll ya are ,...if you were born in 85' ??,....

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Another Note; June 6, 13: It may be known out there to some that I am somewhat 'bros' with this band ,..as I have hung out with them on their tour bus a couple of times ,..and some have suggested that I should have sugarcoated this review and said nothing but all great thangs about my buddies from down under but that wouldn't be honest and that isn't what the boys would want from me ,..and I always tell it like it is ,.. plus, I have been scouring the net and reading 'other' reviews of this new album ,..and I have discovered people 'reviewing it' who obviously apparently haven't even listened to it - or at least listened to it closely enough and a few times at least ! ,... much like those people walking the streets of L.A. right now being randomly microphoned and  answering how happy they were to see the Lakers defeat the Heat tonight for the Stanley Cup ,..as they are plainly fresh from their recent trip to the voting booth in November where they cast for Obama ,... Hey ,... there's only so much you can do with this 1980's sound and I'm just being frank and ernest and honest here ,..and if you don't like it you can fuck off ,.. http://bit.ly/11BRBnNhttp://bit.ly/11BRBnN===================================================================================== =====================================================================================

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