{"id":28749,"date":"2013-04-07T07:23:10","date_gmt":"2013-04-07T12:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=28749"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:35:11","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:35:11","slug":"de-la-cruz-street-level-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/de-la-cruz-street-level-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"De La Cruz | Street Level<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"DeWith their powerful production, huge hooks, kick-ass attitude, air guitar-igniting licks, and bigger-is-better backing vocals, De La Cruz dance so close to delectable awesomeness that you almost want to overlook the one flaw that knocks them down a few pegs. But like a pus-oozing boil on a supermodel\u2019s face, that flaw is just too glaring to be ignored: an over-reliance on repetitious, one-line choruses. And since choruses are arguably the most critical component of \u201880s-style Sunset Strip sleaze metal, by lazily relying on basic refrain structures more often than Lindsay Lohan is late for court, these Aussies flub an opportunity to establish themselves high up in the genre\u2019s pecking order.<\/p>\n

That said, while this is not the metallic masterpiece many retro-sleaze mavericks hoped for, it\u2019s still a healthy dose of headbanging, hair-metal fun. Sure, those aforementioned choruses may not pack the knockout anthemic punch one craves when listening to this sort of stuff, but they\u2019re not exactly limper than a straight man staring at naked pictures of Rosie O\u2019Donnell either; they do pack a punch, even if those punches are a bit subdued when compared to bands like Crazy Lixx, Crashdiet, Baby Jane, etc.<\/p>\n

There really is a lot to like here. The band expertly captures the sound and style of melodic sleaze rock, all torn denim and black leather and bad boys wearing bandanas while snarling songs about crazy sex and wild girls and having crazy sex with wild girls. It\u2019s Def Leppard and Sleeze Beez and Wildside and Tuff all getting their groove on in a gigantic glam-metal gang-bang that results in a pretty solid sleaze-rock creation. Sure, it could have been better\u2026but it also could have been a lot worse.<\/p>\n

For example, even though there are too many choruses begging for more songwriting attention, there are also some choruses that deliver the goods. \u201cWorlds Collide\u201d is not only one of the best tracks on the album, but one of the best songs the sleaze-rock resurgence has served up in quite some time, slamming out a hard and heavy groove with tons of attitude, stacked harmonies, and a killer chorus hook. Equally good is \u201cS.E.X.,\u201d which rollicks along with behemoth backing vocals belting out \u201cS-E-X\u201d with all the naughty tongue-cheeked shenanigans you could ask for. It\u2019s a head-banging, fist-pumping, sing-along sleaze anthem and it\u2019s better than licking vanilla ice cream off Megan Fox\u2019s cleavage. (Well, okay, maybe it\u2019s not quite THAT good, but you get the point.) The sweet-spot production is the cherry on top of this hair-metal concoction; Mutt Lange, Beau Hill, and Chris Laney would be proud\u2026or jealous.<\/p>\n

Even though it has its flaws, do not underestimate the ear-snagging power of Street Level<\/em>. Just because you go on a blind date hoping to meet someone drop-dead gorgeous doesn\u2019t mean the night is a disaster when your date turns out to be merely pretty instead of beautiful. This is a street-savvy, retro-rocking, sleaze-fueled melodic hard rock fest and it doesn\u2019t have to be perfect to entertain.<\/p>\n

Genre: Melodic Hard Rock, Sleaze Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nRoxxi Catalano (lead vocals)
\nCasey Jones (guitar)
\nRory Joy (guitar)
\nGrant Daniell (bass)
\nLacey Lane (drums)<\/p>\n

Track Listing
\n1. Street Level
\n2. Girls Go Wild
\n3. Turn It Up
\n4. Legions of Love
\n5. Gimme Love
\n6. Cherry Bomb
\n7. Dreaming
\n8. Invincible
\n9. Worlds Collide
\n10. S.E.X.
\n11. Set the Night
\n12. Shine<\/p>\n

Webpage: www.delacruzofficial.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Label: Frontiers Records<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 7.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen – Senior Columnist — With their powerful production, huge hooks, kick-ass attitude, air guitar-igniting licks, and bigger-is-better backing vocals, De La Cruz dance so close to delectable awesomeness that you almost want […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":28750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[336,7379,374,2847,334,2841,7380],"class_list":{"0":"post-28749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-cd","9":"tag-de-la-cruz","10":"tag-frontiers-records","11":"tag-melodic-hard-rock","12":"tag-review","13":"tag-sleaze-metal","14":"tag-street-level"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}