LORDI – The Monster Show

Music’s supposed to be fun, right? Sure it is, and Lordi is the final experiment when it comes to humor in music. The band describes themselves as a mix between KISS and Rob Zombie, and that is not a bad description indeed. The music is a very catchy Hard Rockish HIM meets Bon Jovi mix, while the image is a full-on rouge-and-mascara frenzy with outfits and masks that make Slipknot look like Clive Richard. The guys are balancing on a very thin line here, but the whole package is so worked out as both the image and the music are of the kinds that would turn the Christmas Party at the local Chess Club into Saturday Night Fever, one can’t help to be impressed.

This album is a sort of “best of,” which is rather unnecessary as the guys (or zhorghs, eventually) have only released two full-length albums, but money rules, I guess. This, at least, makes for this being a complete show off of party rock ‘n’ roll with 12, more or less, killer tracks.

“Bring It On,” “Blood Red Sandman,” “My Heaven is Your Hell,” and especially the downright awesome “Would You Love A Monsterman” (yes, would you indeed girls?), along with the ending track, “Rock The Hell Outta You,” are the very best of the bunch, but as mentioned, this is overall pretty solid stuff. The overly gothic “Icon of Dominance” and the fairly average ballad “Children of the Night” are the only disappointments.

The Monstahz are by no means musical virtuosos – the guitar solos, for example, are pretty lame throughout, but that’s not what this album is about. The vocals are cool and the band is tight enough to make the music rawk, and that’s satisfying enough. The production, too, is quite cool, with quite a dirty, Motorhead-kinda sound, which suits the music perfectly.

So basically, as long as they stick to their up-tempo stash, LORDI are the cure for all your mother’s family dinners, and these masked-up monsters make for the ultimate Party Platter.