“Guitarist Eric Sexton-Dorsett began writing a series of dissonant, groove-heavy tracks—something that channeled (sic) the high-powered spirit of bands like Def Leppard while drawing on the chaos of Voivod and Morbid Angel“.

Thus runs a line in the PR exposition that accompanies Fast Lane, the new album from new kids on the block Alpha Destroyer. And, though we’ve been taken in by the boasts of a million press bozos before, you can see why we here at Sentinel Daily HQ might have been more than a little interested in the concepts discussed in that one innocent little thirty five word passage…

However three minutes into Dirt In The Ground, a twitchy piece of fish-nor-fowl that sounds like something Ratt might have cooked up when they finally realised grunge was a thing and it was coming for their slice of the pie, it’s clear for all to see that the worthy ideals that fuelled this band’s instigation haven’t really been met. No war aims were realised in the making of this album…

It’s not all bad – none of it is ‘bad’, in fact. It just doesn’t do what was promised; But that shouldn’t stop you enjoying the joyous Frehleyisms of Lobotomized, or the spirited (and again, quite Rattish) title track. Taken as stand alone pieces, outside of any grand plan, the tracks here hold their own but, try as I might, I never felt like shouting ‘ARE YOU MORBID?’ at any point, much less eating like a grinder, if you get my drift (and thanks to Scott Adams for helping me out with the death metal lyrics with which to make my funny point).

Sometimes trying to find pigeonholes, new or otherwise, for music just doesn’t help, and this is one of those times. Alpha Destroyer have made an album here that simply celebrates good hard rock at the end of the day – some of it, like standout track Sweet Dreams From Oblivion, for instance, would even have sounded great on the radio back when this kind of music mattered. And sometimes that should be enough. If you like eighties metal, then I suggest, in spite of my carping, that you might well quite enjoy this quirky little platter.

Fast Lane releases today (October 15th).