LOUD AT LEAST – Dirty
- by Matt Coe
- Posted on 22-09-2015
Austrian band Loud At Least! started in 2008, releasing their debut album "Painful Exploration" a year later. Lineup shuffles and natural personal growth caused 6 years to pass for the follow up "Dirty" – but this melodic hard rock/metal act serves up a decent variety of material in this 13 song record. Catchy, multi-part harmonic choruses and solid musical hooks impress right out of the gate for the one-two punch of "Kill the Dragon" and the more commercial "I Am". The Scorpions, Whitesnake, Gotthard, and Dokken come up most for everything from the bluesy "Ride on Me", the acoustic ballad closer "Up on Stage", or the more dynamical challenging "Love at First Bite".
Gernot Schilcher has a little bit of a shrill nature to his upper range that could be a tough sell at times, but his lower and middle registers possess that golden charm necessary to command your attention. Overall "Dirty" is decent but probably will not set sales records, as the band need to break out of their influence shell and establish more of their own sound to be taken seriously in the long term.