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VANITY BLVD
Wicked Temptation

Noisehead (2014)
Rating: 4/10

Swedish rockers Vanity Blvd are a quartet who seem to be trying too hard to convince us that they are a cool rock ’n’ roll band. The group has suffered various line-up changes since their inception in 2005, but one ingredient has remained; vocalist Anna Savage, who once again purrs her way through this rather harmless and often clichéd album, the follow-up to 2008’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Overdose debut.

Considering how fertile Sweden is when it comes to heavy metal, Vanity Blvd’s rather dull, rock-by-numbers sound is a tad too watery for my liking, and the main problem is the vocals.

While the band – consisting of guitarist Traci Trexx, bassist Pete Ash and drummer Gebb – seem happy to rattle out substandard, 80s-styled glam-tinged metal, the vocals just don’t have the power or the charisma to rise above the rest of the mediocrity. To say this is generic metal is an understatement, as the likes of opener ‘Dirty Rat’ aimlessly rock by with no real purpose or oomph.

Think Ratt, Mötley Crüe, et al but a thousand leagues below, and you’ll find yourself rather numbed by this tirade of sickeningly accessible bubble-gum rock. Sadly, the choruses fail to stick, and the all-round feel is one that seems to bog down so many modern bands of this ilk. Sure, try to revive the 80s if you wish, but there’s just something distinctly lacking in this new wave of metal which has seen the likes of Reckless Love become successful at shameless parody.

However much I try to like the pompous pop of ‘Miss Dangerous’, with its driving riff, or the thrashy entrance to ‘Do Or Die’, my revulsion soon kicks in once the tepid vocals make their introduction akin to a barroom croon. Miss Savage, for all of her enthusiasm, just doesn’t possess the power or showiness to drag this dead horse out of those stagnant waters.

Gebb tries his best to batter and pound the skins, but Traci Trexx – for all of his glamorous name suggests – is merely an extra annoyance as his licks waft across the room upon a wave of banality. ‘Had Enough’, ‘Thrills In The Night’ and closer ‘Dirty Action’ are just plodding, generic glam rock stomps which are completely bereft of potency and send my head spinning with boredom.

Wicked Temptation is a prime example of how modern dynamics and 80s rock revival don’t always go together. With that in mind I reach for the stop button, so tired am I by hearing so many powder-puff bands that have about as much swagger as a dead chicken. Incredibly unadorned, Vanity Blvd are just another band lacking the glitter and edge in their bid for stardom.

Neil Arnold

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