A true rock n’roll survivor, Jizzy Pearl returns in 2022 with his latest iteration of Love/Hate, the band that made him a household name around the world. At least in households where crosses made of Budweiser cans are an item of reverence…

Anyway, you get my drift. For many, this reviewer included, it’s not the soujourns in Ratt or Quiet Riot that get the goosebumps interested, it’s when the man turns back into a full-force rock n’roller under his own (black) flag; and on Hell, CA – the title itself even draws a clarion line back to the band’s fabled 1990 debut – we find the man in fine old form.

Essentially a collection of Zeppelinesque fugues topped off with the usual colourful Pearl tales of ribaldry and people with champagne tastes and beer budgets doing what they have to do to get by, if you know Jizzy then you know exactly what this record sounds like. That’s not to say we’ve heard it all before; actually, it is, but our hero is so adept at suffusing his tales with a raw-throated romanticism that, however many times he reframes them we keep coming back for more. And here, first up for new label Golden Robot, he’s come up with a reframing that sounds absolutely massive.

I was listening to Pearl’s 2014 EP Crucified in tandem with Hell, CA by way of a bit of research/cross referencing; two records, each covering much the same ground and underpinned by fine performances by the singer. But the sound on Hell CA absolutely dwarfs Crucified, thundering from the speakers in superb style and levelling anything that dare stand in it’s way. Closing tack (and standout cut) Lonely Days are Gone is a major beneficiary of this increase in recording quality, as are the excellent Bruised and Battered and the perky Acid Babe, but in all honesty there isn’t a moment here, either in terms of songwriting, construction and musical execution, where Pearl and his band of co-conspiritors don’t take the listener on a wicked hellride right back to the fin of the last siecle…

This really is as good as Pearl has sounded since his ‘glory’ days; vocally he’s in great shape, rattling the listener’s malleus and, indeed incus with some righteous power, whilst guitarists Darren Householder – he of 1993’s Let’s Rumble – and Britain’s fave hooligan Stevie R Pearce churn out the riffs in time honoured low-slung fashion. It’s a joy to behold – especially Pearce’s squalling axe slinging on Bruised and Battered – and if straight-ahead, honest, no-holds barred rock n’roll still gets your juices flowing in 2022, then you’re gonna want to get at least two lugfuls of this album as soon as possible.

Hell, CA releases on March 11th.