...OK, depending on how nationalistic and nitpicky (about genres) you are, you could argue that, to an extent, I am technically reviewing a UK hard rock album. However, Australia has been its own country for at least a hundred years and, well, if you think all glam metal is just hard rock with funny costumes, I'd suggest you go look up W.A.S.P.'s self-titled debut album and Twisted Sister's debut album, Under The Blade.
Anyway, before this descends into a flame war involving nationalist Brits, the rest of the world, metalheads who hate glam metal and people who like it, let's move on to today's band and album. Well, De La Cruz are surprisingly new to the metal scene, forming in mid-2011 and putting out their debut EP in October 2011. After getting a new bassist and, in mid-2012, a recording contract with Frontiers Records, the band set to work on their debut album, which got released in March of last year (on the 25th of March in the UK). Shortly after the release of the album, however, disaster struck: Casey Jones (founding member, guitarist, co-main songwriter and guy in charge of recording, mixing and producing the album) announced his decision to leave the band. While the band are still around now (with a new guitarist and bassist), I think it's unlikely that they'll be releasing another album for a while now.
And nothing of value was lost, if you ask me.
...OK, that was harsh. This album isn't bad (indeed, I'd say it's a very enjoyable album if you like glam metal), but, considering how many good bands are coming out of Europe playing this kind of music and doing it better than De La Cruz are, it's just hard to get really excited about this. I'll admit that it's nice to see a band coming out of Australia playing this kind of music, but I think they need to improve on a few things (assuming they come back) before they have a chance of making any waves.
First of all, I have to aim my first criticism at lead vocalist Roxxi Catalano. The guy seems like he wants to be Axl Rose and...well, he's welcome to give it a go if he wants to, but, when he goes for his higher range, I just hear a guy who is fighting to sing the material a lot of the time. Now, I'm not a vocal coach, so I can't say whether that is just part of his higher range or him having to sing louder than he feels comfortable doing, but it just winds me up when I hear it. That said, he has a fine voice when he doesn't try to do...whatever he's doing that winds me up: his singing in "Dreaming" is very good, reminding me a bit of Olli Hartmann from Reckless Love. On the off chance that Roxxi is reading this, may I suggest more vocals like on "Dreaming" and less like on "Turn It Up" on future albums? You'll probably find it more comfortable on your vocal cords, which is an important thing to remember if you want to seriously make a career in the music business: after all, if you lose your voice, you're basically out of work until your voice recovers!
Secondly, the band's choruses generally appear to be from the "Cherry Pie" school of chorus writing, which teaches that repeating a few words qualifies as a chorus. Now, I'll be honest, this normally doesn't bug too much (heck, Reckless Love did the same thing on Spirit and I didn't criticise them for it), but that's because the music usually is strong enough for me to not go "Hey, that's not an imaginative chorus!" De La Cruz, sadly, haven't quite nailed the ability to write a catchy chorus yet, as they can be very hit or miss when it comes to them (case of point, compare "Dreaming" to "Girls Go Wild". If you come out of that singing "Girls Go Wild" instead of "Dreaming", I'll be surprised!). Considering that glam metal was originally based on catchy choruses, this strikes me as a serious issue which they need to work on. As a new band, I can cut them some slack, but I still think that they should take a bit of time to work on writing stronger choruses before they record their next album and make sure they don't forget those lessons when their third record is in the writing stages, as that is when it's going to be the make or break point for them.
Thirdly, the lyrics, while generally passable for glam metal standards (if you're looking for deep lyrics in glam metal, you're missing the point of it a bit...), do have some moments that leave me wondering what they were thinking. Take "Cherry Bomb", for example: the chorus is literally "My cherry bomb baby/got her head in the clouds and her knees on the ground". While I can make a very good guess as to what they're trying to convey in those lyrics, it's still a set of lyrics that just leave me scratching my head. I'm not going to say those are the worst lyrics I've ever read (Reckless Love have produced worse lyrics in their time), but most of the bands writing worse lyrics at least have the excuse that English isn't their first language. De La Cruz, I remind you, are from Australia (well, mostly: Roxxi Catalano is from New Zealand), so I can't give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.
So, after all of my comments, you'd expect me to hate this band, right? Well...yes and no. I'm not going to say that the issues I have with them are minor issues, as they do add up to generally drag the album down for me. However, to say that it makes the album completely unlistenable would be horribly unfair, as, when the band avoid falling into the pitfalls I've listed, they can write some pretty good songs. Take my personal favourite song on the album, "Dreaming": this song just sounds brilliant, with a wonderful chorus that you'll be humming for a good while, a vocal performance that, while a bit restrained, suits the song nicely and has some lyrics that I actually really like. "Shine" is also very good, having a noticeable atmosphere to it that makes it a rather engaging listen. I also have to say that "S.E.X." has a very good main riff and that, had the band been a bit more subtle with the subject matter (just take a guess as to what the song is about), could have potentially made a great song out of it. I also find "Set The Night On Fire" and "Invincible" pretty enjoyable, although not really enough to call them highlights. For all my complaints, I can't say that any of the songs are outright bad (although "Cherry Bomb" needed a lot more imaginative lyrics to it), it's just that they often fall prey to a few issues that just bug me and drag the experience down.
If you can ignore the issues, it is a fun listen, but I have to ask whether just being a fun listen is enough in this day and age when there are a lot of other bands out there doing the same thing (and, in my opinion, doing it better). And that's really the big issue: if you just want a fun listen, there are other bands out there doing the same thing who can be more fun to listen to than De La Cruz. If they were the only band out there doing it, I'd be raving about them, but, with Europe being a good source of glam metal in this day and age, I can only see this having a noticeable appeal in Australia and New Zealand, since it's expensive to travel to Australia from Europe and most bands would need to be pretty big over there to justify doing a tour there.
The production, considering it was produced by the band's guitarist, is surprisingly good, I have to say. It's a bit louder than it should be, but it's otherwise mixed fairly well (although the bass is maybe a bit on the quiet side for a typical pair of headphones...). I think that the guitars maybe are a bit too loud in the mix (a common issue with guitarists mixing something, I notice...), but I don't think it goes so far overboard that it completely dominates the album.
All told, if you just want to pick up a glam metal album, this isn't a bad album. I just think that, with the Europe scene providing a solid amount of glam being done to a higher quality than De La Cruz have provided, there's not a lot of point to getting excited about them if you live in or near Europe. That doesn't necessarily mean that you should completely dismiss them just because Europe does it better, but I just think that it's tough to go "YEAH, GO TEAM!" at the minute. If you do live in Australia, I'd say it's worth picking up (if only because European glam metal is not likely to be heading your way unless it gets big, so supporting your native bands is a good idea for now), but the rest of the world should put these guys on your list of bands to only check out if you're bored on a rainy day. Glam fanatics might love this album more than I do, but I just can't get excited about this one. Sorry guys, better luck next time!
Final rating: 6 out of 10
Personal favourite tracks: "Dreaming", "Shine".
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