New Releases 8/7 - Turbonegro, Ego Likeness

Turbonegro

Sexual Harassment

Label: Scandinavian Leather Recordings / Volcom Entertainment
Released: 8/7 2012
Genre: Punk, Hardcore

A Norwegian punk-metal band going way back to 1989 (with a brief hiatus). A kind of mix between KISS and Black Flag (with a healthy dose of Alice Cooper, and The Stooges in there). They call it deathpunk, whatever else you can tack onto it, it's pretty good solid punk rock with lots of glam rock stapled on.

Despite knowing of them, and hearing them sporadically throughout the years, I never found an album to buy. Thankfully, the new release was pretty widely available and I've had my first shot at a full album. This is fantastically over the top kind of rock'n'roll. Nothing here takes itself really seriously, except to be serious rock. They gleefully go from Shake Your Shit Machine to TNA (The Nihilistic Army), about as far apart as you can get on the serious meter I think. One's ridiculousness could only fit in a glam-rock set, the next sounds like it could be from the early 80s hardcore scene in lyrical content.

Most of it, though, feels like early KISS glam-rock on this album. Even the most idiotic lyric is sung with a kind of conviction that makes you want to pump your fist in the air and shot the chorus line. I can only imagine these guys are an absolute blast live. If you want just some solid, good, Rock And Roll kind of stuff, this is an album to go get. I will be making a definite effort to find more of their albums in the future.

Ego Likeness

Dragonfly (Re-Issue)

Label: self released (http://www.egolikeness.com)
Released: August 2012
Genre: Darkwave, Gothic Rock, Industrial

This is technically a re-issue of their first album, available as part of a recent Kickstarter project. The original album is still available digitally through iTunes and Amazon, but I think they're getting ready to pull a larger print run on the physical CD (I think). I'm putting it here because the re-issue is new-ish (even if the album is almost ten years old). Definitely a kind of way-back sound to the early 00s Darkwave scene (we're getting on a decade out, in music terms that's practically old school).

A good solid dark-rock, electronic gothic music sound to it. The opening track is a sample from the movie Dead Ringers, and honestly, was kind of cheesy even then and sounds even more so now. After that is rolls into a kind of slow, dark song that's just superb. And keeps going along like that to the finish. A solid entry into the gothic-rock scene of the times, and approaching that Classic Album status so many good records attain. Some of it approaches industrial in composition and execution, giving some of them a more EDM style than Gothic, but not so much as to lose focus.

The re-release comes with two bonus tracks, Drive and Above The Soil (Edward's Version). Both of them are from compilations that are out of print (and a little hard to find), and are a nice inclusion for a re-issue. Hopefully the hardcopy re-issue will surface for general consumption, if not pick up the digital versions of the album - even without the bonus tracks it's good musics.