PERFORMANCE: Swaggering full bore
HOT SPOTS: “Sexdrugsrock’n’roll”, “Red Hot”, Heatbreak Blvd”
BOTTOM LINE: Hot over-the-top rip cash from these missing-in-action Swedes.
Shotgun Messiah splashed on the scene woth a 1989 debut album dominated by guitarist Harry K. Cody’s streaming crash-and-burn guitar. So, what took so long for its high energy, rude rocking ‘Second Coming’? try a broken bone, a personality crisis, bass player auditions – you know, the usual.
For those who like rock in-your-face loud, hung with heavy chorus hooks and brimming with barely controlled guitar craziness, ‘Second Coming’ is the ticket. Gone is the “K” from Harry Cody, as are the band’s glam hair end attitude, replaced by a tougher street punk stance, and singer Zinny San, replaced by bassist Tim Skold’s brash frog-in-the-throat croaking. What isn’y gone is Cody’s bold effects-free guitar playing, combining aggression with codles of chops and mixing scrapings and sound bites with lead strings of frightening melodic sharpness.
‘Second Coming’ bolsters his reputation as one of the brightest young hard rock players, a reputation that got a boost from exceptional work on Stu Hamm’s ‘The Urge’ last year. Even with three ballads, ‘Second Coming’, from three Swedes and a New Yorker, manages to out-L.A. its Sunset Strip neighbors with swaggering, full bore strut rock.
