By all normal metrics, you’d think Swedish rockers Crazy Lixx would have run out of steam by now; Yet here we are, ushering in 2025 with a new album from Danny Rexon and company  – their eighth all-new studio full-lengther by my reckoning – and there’s no discernible dip in quality to speak of.

Quite simply Rexon is a machine, a man who is able to assimilate his love for all things eighties into something that is very often better than the source material. We are getting to the point now where it is futile to simply deride Rexon as an eighties revivalist and simply far more productive – and correct –  to hail him as simply a gigantic talent in his own right.

Of course, there is still plenty of eighties revivalism here; Opener Highway Hurricane and superb headbanger Call of the Wild (which melds Iron Maiden‘s Flash of the Blade and Black Sabbath‘s Heaven and Hell with predictably explosive results) both chart seemingly heavier territory than the band have ventured into recently, yet even here the classy veneer hangs over proceedings, the whiff of Rexon’s musicianly perfectionism heavy in the air.

Little Miss Dangerous is a riotous tribute to Alice Cooper, whilst standout cut Hunt For Danger is classic Lixx, all brooding, Leppardesque bombast and Desmond Child glitz, and, whilst you wouldn’t want these boys injecting anything too modern into their myth, there’s a hedonistic desperation about some of this music – and after all weren’t we all dancing in the shadow of the mushroom cloud the first time this sort of music was popular? – that means it’s very relevant to the situation we find ourselves in today…

As ever, we must stop to acknowledge the fact that a lot of credit must go to the rest of the band for fleshing out Danny’s vision, and Jens Lundgren and Chrisse Olsson both deserve props for their excellent six string contributions over the top of the dynamic engine room drumer Robin Nilsson and bassist Jens Andersson; Rexon may be the star of this show but he’d have to work a whole lot harder without these blokes doing much of the heavy lifting…

Thrill of the Bite won’t convert too many unbelievers, but if you’ve ever like any of this band’s output in the past then you’ll love this album to bits – a great start to the new year!