Customer Reviews

Hoodoo

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been a Krokus fan since 1984 and have purchased a few of their discs along the way. Many times, the band was just a combination of who-evers. This latest disc has the old band reunited and I must say I am pleasantly surprised. Vocalist Marc Storace is top notch, hauntingly similar to Bon Scott at various spots...which is a good thing. I purchased the 2 disc set. The dvd is nice to have but no big deal. Many times, you can hear sound check going on as the interviews are being conducted. The first track, Drive it in, speaks of sex and rock n roll...great combo. Hoodoo Woman rocks leading into the classic Born to be Wild which they do very well. Rock n Roll Handshake has a cool guitar rhythm. The entire disc just sounds great and Storace's voice is in fine form. Shot of Love sounds like a Highway to Hell clone. You can hear yourself singing AC/DC's classic right along to this tune. I'm sure the guys were aiming for this similarity...it's undeniable. If you have been a fan, don't let this one pass you by. The groove is back!

I've been a Krokus fan since I first heard Long Stick Goes Boom on the radio back in the 80's. Bought that album and loved it.

Ever since then, each album seemed to impress me less and less as time went by.

So I wasn't expecting much out of this one. But when I heard the first track I was blown away. The whole album, from the guitars to the vocals to the drums, sounds very similar to One Vice, but with better production. Even some of the guitar riffs have the same One Vice sound to them. Some would say this is a bad thing, but I'm tickled that they went back to basics.

If you like that classic Krokus sound from back in the day, you'll love this album.

First off, I love Krokus, I love the band, I was listening to them back in the day when heavy metal was nothing but a sign (sometimes right, sometimes false) of being drugged-out useless bits of flesh society would never find a use for. That's why I think it's even that much more important that I be honest in this review. I can't say this is the best cd they've put; I can't even say it's better than their last one. I can say that I'm glad to see the original band reuinted. They're calling this cd their first in twenty years, but they've been recording with bits and pieces of the original band that - and for many years now - have been putting out high-level, top-notch products. But, in hailing this as "the return of classic rock," the way I see it, they're trying to forget or distance themselves from Hellraiser because its younger members took them in new, energetic directions that were powerful but different from the "Metal Rendezvous" or "One Vice At A Time" era guys. But, heck, Marc Storace's not even the original vocalist for Krokus! I love these guys, I love the band, and I paid tons of money for the limited cd/dvd combo. But, in all honesty, the first five songs sound like what people in their most cynical mode are going to call Krokus: a band that plays gigs for middle-aged Harley hogheads. Which might be a darn fine thing in your book. And I know they're so, so much better than that. But if that's the kind of thing you're looking for, if you pump your fist everytime you hear "Born To Be Wild," well, I guess you'll love this. But I got tired of hearing about women "sliding up and down the pole" and the battle cry of "grabbing the girl in the red dress" and "the black dress" and " no dress" and telling her "Let's drive it in!" I hated it, but I laughed out loud at the "heavy metal handshake" ("Gimme a rock-n-roll handshake, set your spirit free, gimme me a rock-n-roll handshake, turn around and slap on one on me!") that sounded like some church song gone bad or a Fifth Grade Third-Grader-Hater's-Club handshake ritual, and, I swear to you, it had a neon-lighted-disco-jive guitar riff as the major element of its chorus. The second half of the cd, however, sounds like the Krokus I used to know, the Headhunter-era Krokus. So I gues they're doing things right. And, I don't if this was his intent or not, but Storace does an awesome, amazing Bon Scott imitation on "Keep Me Rolling;" sounds just like him, and that's an awesomely eery thing; loved it. All in all, this is just sort of a mixed bag. I did find myself tapping my fingers to tunes in spite of myself, and "Ride Into The Sun" is an awesome, tough-spirited ballad, almost reminiscent of something like "Screaming In The Night." The last four songs are all out rockers, very credible stuff. They're back, they've got this cd under their wheels, and maybe they've got some days ahead that'll blow the lights out. If you're wondering about the dvd, you get to hear all the guys talking about getting together again, how the years in between effected them, and how the studio recording went. It's for diehard fans only. You get a few live clips.

Come on, people...if you found Krokus before MTV did, you know they were the Swiss equivalent to AC/DC - check out their 'Hardware' album (esp. 'Burning Bones') and you'll get the idea...why, all of a sudden, is Marc Storace being compared to Bon Scott, when he always sounded like him in the first place?? In my opinion, this cd is geared toward the fans that were along for the ride before 'Screaming In The Night' became their signature song. And THAT is a GOOD thing...long-time Krokus fans rejoice...this is the album you've been waiting for. Now, can they PLEASE keep this line-up together for a while? Thanks...

Krokus is back in a big way, listening to the cd made me think of the good old days of rock when it had a great beat and good groove. I have always thought of Krokus as a band that wanted to sound like AC/DC, well I think with their latest effort Hoodoo they have surpassed AC/DC latest album Black Ice in which I didn't care for at all. Here is one vote for Marc Storace to take over Brian Johnson as lead singer of AC/DC if he ever decides to retire. He sounds a little like Bon Scott even though he could never come close to filling those shoes, Bon was one of a kind.

I am a long-time 80's heavy metal fan, mostly leaning for the much heavier stuff but still having a soft spot for some of the heavier radio-played or supposedly "hair-metal" bands from back in the day. My favorite Krokus album from way back was always Heart Attack when it came out. All the classic Krokus material from beforehand being staple **tapes** or **LPs** to own, of course. After that, I lost track of these guys but way later stumbled upon To Rock or Not to Be, which quickly became one of my favorite Krokus records. I thought Round 13 was not as good. Rock the Block I got recently and thought it was excellent. So, where does Hoodoo fall in this continuum? Well, it is a little more laid back and little more blues-reliant than some of their post-classic era work, but it is very good. Some of this record totally rocks hard, the rest is very good--and it is all total Krokus in a very good way. I can't say it has quite the energy of To Rock or Not to Be or Rock the Block--those I would give 5 stars because I love the most high-energy, up-tempo stuff the best and I don't tend to tolerate bluesy-stuff as much. But the tunes on this are memorable and infectious hard-rock metal even so. This record is a great, and I really do enjoy it.

Usually I am pretty wordy with my reviews but not this time, a fine blues based metal album. Nothing ground breaking or earth shattering here, but it does not matter. If you are a fan of AC/DC or the more commercial aspects of Accept, you should like this.

Marc Storace is still in fine voice and the band sounds tight and happy to be in the studio. This has that energetic (but fun) feel of songs like Eat the Rich, Headhunter and Ballroom Blitz. Yes Storace sounds like Bon Scott, but he has for 30 years so any idea of intention impersonating is just moot after all this time.

Very well done album. Classic feel and sound but does not come across as contrived - which is a trap a lot of seasoned bands can fall into.

Album doesn't necessarily have any A+ tracks like a "Stayed Awake All Night" or "Screaming in the Night" but there are no weak songs. Each track is like a B+ which makes the overall album very strong.

Don't worry about this being some 80's hairband trying to come back. Krokus was around before the hairbands - this is just flat-out good rock n' roll!

Another fantastic band!!! After 25 years or so they still can rock like never before. Another band that has that wonderful AC/DC Bon Scott years sound!!! I can't stop listening to this thing!!! I certainly highly recommend this CD!!!

Krokus is back however this incarnation of the band is not the original band (bassist Chris Von Rohr is the only original member), but rather the combination of musicians who formed the nucleus of Krokus during their most successful years in the early to late 1980's. So what do we have here?

Krokus themselves have claimed that this is the album that should have been the follow up to 1983's Headhunter album (still my favorite Krokus album), but I don't see it that way. Track five Ride Into The Sun is the only track that I think sounds anything like something from Headhunter, a power-ballad reminiscent of the classic Screaming In The Night. This one is a damn fine power ballad in my opinion (but still not as good as SITN). Besides this song, I think that generally this album sounds more like a blend of earlier albums One Vice At A Time from 1982 and the one which gained them their first taste of international success (with Storace making his debut on vocals) Metal Rendezvous from 1980. Headhunter was more of a metal album, closer to stuff being released by Judas Priest than it was the AC/DC type blues based hard rock which people had come to know of as Krokus, no doubt due to it being produced by Tom Allom who also produced Judas Priest around that time. Hoodoo has been produced by Von Rohr himself, but he's no newcomer to producing as he has done the job on several Krokus albums in the past, and worked as a producer for other bands in the years between his contributions to Krokus. However the guys have also played a smart card in getting the very successful Dennis Ward to record and mix the album. So as you would expect this album has a great sound clarity and a well balanced mix but still retains that typical Krokus, slightly gritty sound.

As for the songs themselves, we get a damn fine collection of straight forward, blues based, hard rocking numbers with Ride Into The Sun being the only exception (but one of my favorites none the less). Other highlights for me include the opener Drive It In with its great rhythm and sleazy lyrics about trying to pick up girls in a strip club. It's typical Krokus of old that sets the tone for the rest of the album (and brings back hazy memories of my bucks night...). Track five Too Hot is a mid tempo rocker with that classic `80's hard rock sound to it and could easily have been a single. Track six In My Blood is a straight forward rocker with a great rhythm that gets me nodding my head to the beat and tapping on the steering wheel. Track nine Keep Me Rolling is very reminiscent of Bon Scott era AC/DC and no doubt others will hear the similarities and criticize the band for it, but I love it. Track ten Shot Of Love is another mid tempo rocker that will draw the same comments but again... I just love this stuff!

The rest of the songs aren't bad. In fact there are no bad songs at all. The album closer Firestar is good but I just like the others a bit more. Track four Rock `N' Roll Handshake has a great riff and beat, and a feel good factor (I don't know why I think it does, but to me it just does). However WTF are these lyrics?? For the life of me I can't figure what the hell the guys are on about! I thought initially that it might have been rock `n' roll slang for getting a hand shandy but the rest of the lyrics aren't consistent with that so I have no idea. For that reason I also find this song slightly humorous! Track seven Dirty Street is okay, but is really a recycled song from the past in Bourbon Street which appeared as a b-side on a the single Wild Love from 1988's Heart Attack album. But they've done this before (check out Say Goodbye on the album Change Of Address which is a recycled version of Tokyo Nights from Metal Rendezvous). The riff and melody of the streets are the same, but some lyrics have been changed and it seems a little slower paced. Not as good as the original version which unfortunately is not available in any digital format goddamnit!

The two tracks I think are the weakest are track two Hoodoo Woman and track three Born To Be Wild. Yep... track three is a cover version. Krokus have put a cover version on several albums in the past, with the most successful being their versions of Alice Cooper's Schools Out on the 1986 album Change Of Address, Bachman Turner Overdrive's Stayed Awake All Night on Headhunter and American Woman on One Vice At A Time. This time they also do a pretty good cover but do we need another version of this Steppenwolf classic? I think not when I have great versions of it already by The Cult and Angry Anderson, and check it out on Wikipedia if you like; the list of bands that have already done it is longer than the great wall of China. This song should have been included as a bonus if they felt they had to do it, but not at track three because it stuffs up the flow of the album I reckon so sometimes I skip it. That leaves Hoodoo Woman which is the one promoted as a single. It isn't a bad song, but if you look at the credits you see this song was mostly written by outside writers, which is why I think it really goes nowhere, is a little bland and fails to stack up against the rest of the album which has been written by the band.

All in all we have a great collection of rock `n' roll here which fans of the band like me are going to love, but I can't help noticing that in comparison to the last two Krokus albums Rock The Block and Hellraiser this one seems to be lacking a little bit of energy. This is most obvious in the drumming because whilst Freddy Steady is indeed that, he is not as good as Stefan Schwartzmann (now in Accept again). I think energy of the younger guys who made up the band on these last two albums really came across in the music, and it is lacking a bit on Hoodoo. However you have to balance that against the old crew giving us more songs in that classic Krokus sound of old, so for me it's still an album that I really like a lot and I hope they keep it up for at least a couple more albums yet. However it isn't quite as good as some of their past albums. 4.5 stars

As for the bonus DVD - I love it. Some interviews with band members talking about the reunion, but the best part is getting to see them play some live songs. Although only 1 or 2 are played all the way through, us fans have not had much in the way of live visual stuff from Krokus over the years so it is very welcome.