BLITZ – Welcome To The Rock Show

Being a Rock star in the 21st century is certainly more of a challenge than it was in the previous one. Actually, it must have been kind of easy back then – all one had to do was to come up with some melodies, play them in front of a big crowd and enjoy the life of a legendary musician. Now these days are gone and it’s rather hard to create something that has not been played yet. Many of the fans of Rock music, particularly those who got to see some legendary bands that have not been around for years, are rather sceptical as far as new bands are concerned. “Well it’s the old stuff that still kicks” – that and a hundred other comments along these lines would be their argument number one. It was the old music that was amazing and the new music should not even be given the chance, because it’s new, period! And there is at least one band out there those orthodox Hard Rock fans probably should check. They should, because it sounds like a mix of several bands from the 1980s. Here are the British rockers Blitz with their debut album Welcome to the Rock Show.

Many positive things can be heard about this record. The songs have the kick and power to them. There is a flow and groove there too. Really cool guitar solos, solid drums and bass lines that can actually be heard. Sounds like a perfect mix, right? Well, almost. There is one thing the guys at Blitz seem to have neglected when making this album. Here’s what that one missing ingredient is.

The album starts with a composition titled “Believe” that would have been a Hard Rock anthem in back in the times such records as Creatures of the Night by KISS or Under the Blade came out. It could be described as if KISS decided to make a cover of “Sweet Child O’Mine” by Guns N’ Roses. Not literally of course, but the lead guitar really does bring stuff by Slash to mind. The next composition, “Rock City Nights,” has some Scorpions sound to it, and funnily enough, the Rock legends from Hannover do happen to have a song called “Big City Nights” in their repertoire.

Some melodies, however, cannot be associated with any other song, at least at first. This concerns for instance the third track called “Miss America” – that harmonic minor outro surely could get more than one rocker into the trance. But yes – the missing ingredient mentioned before is originality. The band sounds like a conglomerate of various artists from the past decades: Savatage, Judas Priest, Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe and the list goes on. There’s nothing wrong with incorporating various styles into one’s music – that’s how new songs are written after all – but many songs on Welcome to the Rock Show really could do with some originality to them.

Overall, the album is nice to listen to. But that is still not enough. Despite being well played and produced, Welcome to the Rock Show is probably not what most of the rockers have been waiting for. People who don’t care about music much and listen to it just for fun might find the songs by Blitz exciting, but it’s highly unlikely that the album will have the keen fans of Hard Rock impressed. Why? Because those who like the old bands, but also appreciate it when the new bands introduce their audience to something old sounding yet also fresh will think of Blitz as an 1980s tribute band. And those who limit themselves to the old songs will reject Welcome to the Rock Show simply because it isn’t labelled as Whitesnake or Judas Priest. The best way to sum it up might be the title of the second album by another British Rock trio called Medusa, which they decided to title Can’t Fucking Win.