{"id":44399,"date":"2014-08-26T16:34:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T21:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=44399"},"modified":"2014-08-26T16:34:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T21:34:00","slug":"julian-angels-beautiful-beast-kick-down-the-barricades-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/julian-angels-beautiful-beast-kick-down-the-barricades-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Julian Angel\u2019s Beautiful Beast | Kick Down The Barricades<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"965950\"A fleeting glimpse of the cartoon-ish album cover\u2026 and the first thought you have is \u201chow come it\u2019s 1989 again?\u201d You must know it\u2019s a sign of progress anyway \u2013 the cover of the previous album of Julian Angel-fronted project was graced by female\u2019s G-string-clad backside. But apart from the graphic content, this first thought you had will become a sweet d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu once you give Kick Down The Barricades<\/em> a spin. The third album of Julian Angel and his Beautiful Beast marks no departure from their style as they continue to transfer hair metal convention into the 21st century \u2013 doing it with their heads held up high rather than the proverbial tongues in their cheeks, as most certainly these guys are no Steel Panther. <\/p>\n

The very first track on Kick Down The Barricades<\/em> alone may literally kick down some (barricades, that is, or whatever gets in its way). Titled \u201cBad Boys Never Dance,\u201d it\u2019s what you could find in the encyclopedic entry of \u201cparty rocker\u201d if there ever was one, driven by the \u201880s style riff and trademark hair metal vocal harmonies. If going for associations, think bands such as Danger Danger or the early Bon Jovi. With its recited verses, group chants and feisty riffs, its follow-up \u201cBig Stuff\u201d gravitates towards the funk-ish side of things and, deliberately or not, reminds one of early Electric Boys and their biggest hit \u201cAll Lips N\u2019 Hips\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t Stand The Fiction\u201d may seem to be \u201cjust another\u201d pop metal piece that hardly deserves to be hailed as outstanding. Still, there is something captivating in its melodic riffs and catchy hooks that makes you hum its chorus even a week after you dismissed it as unrevelatory. \u201cShock \u2018Em Dead\u201d continues in a feisty, sleazy manner that blends mid-\u201880s Cr\u00fce sound with contemporary sleaze rock, while \u201cThe Night Cries For You\u201d is a perfectly crafted tearjerker, complete with soaring vocals, schmaltzy melody and wailing guitar solo. Add the video laden with white-clad rock heroes falling on their knees synchronically and it\u2019s more than sure this combo could have made the guys from Warrant look pretty pale.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnSexy\u201d and the title track are two straight-in-your-face rockers that sounds relatively modern in comparison with the rest of the album, but nevertheless interesting with their groovy choruses and rough melodies. Opened with a subtle acoustic intro, \u201cShake Me Back Home\u201d is a sugary melodic rock piece, its mellow mid-tempo verses contrasted with slightly more feisty bridges and choruses \u2013 preceding even more saccharine \u201cHigh On Love\u201d, a next-to-last song on the album. It\u2019s followed by the final \u201cSix In The Red\u201d, which is another portion of straightforward \u201880s rock enriched with some distant echoes of blues.<\/p>\n

\u201cHair Metal like it\u2019s still 1989\u201d being Julian Angel\u2019s Beautiful Beast\u2019s motto, it\u2019s clear this power trio doesn\u2019t really waste their words \u2013 even with their third effort in a row. However, if it had been released 25 years ago, Kick Down The Barricades might have either fallen into obscurity among the dozens of similar \u201880s rock albums or ended up being swept away by the merciless wave of grunge\/alternative in the early 1990s. Released in 2014, the album will make the teenage Reckless Love fans crazy\u2026 and maybe also bring back the practices of hair backcombing and wearing spandex\/leopard prints to the group of the married-with-children forty-year-olds. But most of all, it will put a smile on every hair metal fan\u2019s face as it\u2019s certainly Danger Danger, early Bon Jovi, mid-\u201880s Cr\u00fce and Poison aficionados who should get familiar with Kick Down The Barricades<\/em>. The album is a solid, well-performed dose of shamelessly \u201880s hair metal with touches of AOR and sleaze rock, a combination of loud-yet-melodic guitars and hedonistic lyrics. So, put your symphonic rock record collection away and forget the grungy flannel shirts; Hair Metal is alive and well and \u2013 as it seems \u2013 still here to stay.<\/p>\n

Genre: Hair Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nJulian Angel (lead vocals, lead guitars)
\nFrank McDouglas (bass, backing vocals)
\nRamy Ali (drums, percussion, backing vocals)<\/p>\n

Track List:
\n1.\tBad Boys Never Dance
\n2.\tBig Stuff
\n3.\tCan\u2019t Stand The Fiction
\n4.\tShock \u2018Em Dead
\n5.\tThe Night Cries For You
\n6.\tUnSexy
\n7.\tKick Down The Barricades
\n8.\tShake Me Back Home
\n9.\tHigh On Love
\n10.\tSix In The Red<\/p>\n

Label: Platinum Blonde<\/p>\n

Website:
\nhttp:\/\/www.beautifulbeastrock.com\/<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beautifulbeastrock<\/a><\/p>\n

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

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Senior Columnist — A fleeting glimpse of the cartoon-ish album cover\u2026 and the first thought you have is \u201chow come it\u2019s 1989 again?\u201d You must know it\u2019s a sign of progress […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":44401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[9893,2317,1125,9892,9890,9891,9894],"class_list":{"0":"post-44399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-beautiful-beast","9":"tag-cd-review","10":"tag-hair-metal","11":"tag-julian-angel","12":"tag-julian-angels-beautiful-beast","13":"tag-kick-down-the-barricades","14":"tag-platinum-blonde"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44399","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=44399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}