{"id":44473,"date":"2014-08-30T06:38:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-30T11:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=44473"},"modified":"2014-08-30T06:38:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-30T11:38:00","slug":"unbreakable-knockout-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/unbreakable-knockout-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Unbreakable | Knockout<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"Unbreakable\"A one-line review of this German hard rock band would read: Unbreakable sound like the Scorpions. However, a writer who dared submit such a succinct review would probably find his fingers smashed by an irate editor. So in order to avoid fractured phalanges, additional word count is required.<\/p>\n

This is as close as you can get to the Scorpions without listening to the actual Scorps. The mimicry appears deliberate, as Unbreakable not only cue their name from the title of a Scorpions record, but also tapped former Scorpions drummer Herman Rarebell to pen lyrics and produce. Surely paying homage to that classic Scorpions sound was intentional, right? Hard to picture all those components in the mix and the band bewilderedly scratching their heads and muttering, \u201cUh, why does our album sound like the Scorpions?\u201d<\/p>\n

So yeah, if you like the Scorps, this one is pretty solid. If you don\u2019t like the Scorps \u2026 please consider your membership to the hard rock club revoked. From the unabashed \u201880s metal influence to the blazing guitar work to the vocalist\u2019s accented delivery to the riff-centric song structure, nearly everything about this release is reminiscent of the Scorpions. Unbreakable may lack their own identity, but for the most part they do a bang-up job of honoring their rock \u2018n\u2019 roll idols.<\/p>\n

With a vintage sound and time-honored (or clich\u00e9d, if you want to be petty) lyrical tropes firmly intact (well, \u201cCrazy Cat Lady\u201d may not exactly be your standard \u201880s cheese-fest, but it is amusingly loaded with naughty innuendo, putting it firmly in the spirit of the era), the band just wants to rock you like a hurric\u2014well, you know.<\/p>\n

Aside from a couple weak ballads, the songs are all revved up, fist-pumping hard rock. The first single, \u201cRock the Nightlife,\u201d not only rocks your face off, but comes equipped with mega-catchiness as well. It\u2019s like the chorus is constructed from fish hooks that snag your ears, reel you in, and refuse to let go. Even better is \u201cObsession,\u201d ramping up the sonic pleasure with a razor-sharp riff and explosive chorus graced with massive backing vocals, which means the track is all that and a bag of chips, as the cool kids used to say.<\/p>\n

Bottom line, this album should satisfy most any \u201880s hard rock fan. Yes, the Scorpions worship is more obvious than a naked man\u2019s erection, but does that really matter? If a girl who looked exactly like Megan Fox crawled into your bed one night, would you kick her out because she wasn\u2019t actually Megan Fox? Hell, no. Same principle applies here. Unbreakable don\u2019t quite score a knockout punch with this debut, but they\u2019re certainly not down for the count either.<\/p>\n

Genre: Hard Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nAl Crespo (vocals)
\nMartin Ries (guitars)
\nPascal Alles (guitars, backing vocals)
\nAlex Ries (drums)
\nLukas Mittler (bass)<\/p>\n

Track Listing
\n1. Knockout
\n2. Rock the Nightlife
\n3. Come Back to Me
\n4. Bad Blood
\n5. Obsession
\n6. Crazy Cat Lady
\n7. In Your Heart
\n8. Good Times
\n9. Back to the Roots
\n10. Game of Life
\n11. We are Dreamers<\/p>\n

Label: Dark Star Records<\/p>\n

Webpage: www.unbreakable-music.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen – Senior Columnist — A one-line review of this German hard rock band would read: Unbreakable sound like the Scorpions. However, a writer who dared submit such a succinct review would probably […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":44475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[2317,9916,1103,9391,9915,735,9393],"class_list":{"0":"post-44473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-dark-star-records","10":"tag-hard-rock","11":"tag-herman-rarebell","12":"tag-knockout","13":"tag-scorpions","14":"tag-unbreakable"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44473","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=44473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}