DYNAMITE – Big Bang

The first track on Dynamite’s third album Big Bang is “March On (To The Beat Of Your Drum)”, an odd command from a band that is very clearly marching to the beat of AC/DC’s drum. Whether it is the riffs, tempo, lyrics, song structures, band-chanted choruses, or singer Mattis’s vocals, which usually range somewhere between Bon Scott’s mirthful menace and Brian Johnson’s gleeful shriek, Big Bang is virtually marinated in AC/DC.

Being a derivative isn’t necessarily bad in music, especially in the vacuum left by the retirement of a great band who is unlikely to ever add to their catalogue. Most Metalheads aren’t opposed to a decent, earnest cover band, so many would be likely to at least give a band attempting new material in the style of an icon a chance. The risk in such a venture is that homage, if poorly executed, can appear to be parody.

Big Bang isn’t a parody record, and the songs are solid tributes, especially the aforementioned “March On (To The Beat Of Your Drum)”, the title cut, and “Rock N’ Roll Ain’t Dead”, but taken as a whole the album doesn’t approach the grandeur and punch of the canon that inspired it. Is it a failing to not be as a good as an iconic band? Is it in a sin to play like Angus but not be Angus, one of the most singular and original musicians ever to pick up a guitar? It isn’t, and so Big Bang isn’t a bad album. It just isn’t an AC/DC album, no matter how hard Dynamite tries to make it one.

TUNE INTO METALEXPRESSRADIO.COM at NOON & MIDNIGHT (EST) / 6:00 & 18:00 (CET) TO HEAR THE BEST TRACKS FROM THIS UPCOMING RELEASE!!!