Everyone has prejudices, and I am no exception. I am also damn glad that I have them, as they can lead to very pleasant surprises. With the band name "Honey Blonde" and a song title "Unicorns and Rainbows," I expected soft rock for high school kids who brag about having listened to rock without any harm. But it turned out differently: I got a proper earful and would like to apologize in the form of 9 well-deserved points.
This band can best be described with the words "diversity" and "earworm factor." Between hard and pounding sounds, there are also sometimes beautiful and listenable clean guitars that go very well with similarly designed bass lines and very harmoniously played drum interludes.
While "Faithful" and "When My Daydreams Are Over" are a bit more moderate and melodic, the four folks really go for it in songs like "Mirror" (which is my favorite, by the way!) and "Octagon," cranking up the distortion. It makes you want to have a nice pogo party with beer cups that you throw against the ceiling of the too-small concert hall during the mosh pit. Yes! That’s exciting!
The voice is particularly hard to describe. On one hand, it hits the notes well and showcases some of the band's best qualities by carrying a large part of the melody without sounding sterilized or artificially perfected. On the other hand, it still has a certain "roughness" that makes it not really mass-compatible and thus somewhat special. It is – as often seems to be the case – really hard to describe, especially when the style is as diverse as it is with this band. Ultimately, one can say that it knows how to captivate and especially the choruses (without neglecting the verses) almost all become earworm titles. So, anyone who likes annoying insects or silly metaphors will definitely find something here!
Wow! This record really blew me away and surprised me a lot! If there were ever to be a "Ramtatta CD Award" to crown the best achievement of the year, I would nominate "All Engines Running" as a hot candidate. Since the arrival of the record (which was a few days ago), the music has been playing on repeat for me without ever becoming boring.
Anyone who doesn't at least give this a listen is to blame themselves. Period!
