{"id":46505,"date":"2014-10-26T09:10:34","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T14:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=46505"},"modified":"2014-10-26T09:10:34","modified_gmt":"2014-10-26T14:10:34","slug":"bulletrain-start-talking-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/bulletrain-start-talking-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulletrain | Start Talking<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"BULLETRAINNever judge a book by its cover, the wise men say \u2013 and they couldn\u2019t be all wrong, could they? Upon the first look at the album cover of Bulletrain\u2019s Start Talking<\/em>, you see a black-and-white photo that portrays a really strange case of an everyday accessory one uses for protection against rain. And then you start to wonder \u2013 is Bulletrain one of those bands whose music is laden with the symbolic meanings and underlying contents, one the listener has to think really hard to understand? But if you\u2019re not into sublime messages and complicated symbols, don\u2019t worry; a wicked (or simply holey) umbrella has nothing to do with what you\u2019ll hear once Start Talking is given a spin. If you want to be given a clue, it\u2019s the band\u2019s off-hand logo says a lot more about the music they play. It\u2019s nonchalant. It\u2019s rough. It\u2019s sharp. It has exactly the same qualities as the recorded material these talented Swedes are about to release in October 2014 via AOR Heaven.<\/p>\n

The first track on the above album, entitled \u201cNothin\u2019 But Trouble\u201d, introduces you to Bulletrain\u2019s refreshing mix of contemporary sleaze rock and slightly punk rock-ish feistiness \u2013 kind of LA-Guns-meets-The-Ramones-meets-Cr\u00e4shdiet, nonchalant and energetic. \u201cAll For One\u201d and \u201cDark Days (Dark Nights)\u201d continue in a similar manner, noisy rock\u2019n\u2019roll pieces with sleazy flavors. The first seconds into \u201cFrom The Bottom Of My Heart\u201d, you may have an impression you\u2019ve just come across a vintage country song recorded in mono on a scratchy vinyl, but don\u2019t be fooled as it\u2019s the very same track Bulletrain get really heavy in sound-wise. Its title is perhaps a bit misleading, too, so you\u2019d better avoid making it a soundtrack to the romantic dinner for two!<\/p>\n

\u201cEven With My Eyes Closed\u201d is a neat mid-tempo that gravitates toward more mellow side of things \u2013 think more radio-friendly moments of Cr\u00e4shdiet or more melodic endeavors of pop punk bands. Perhaps Reckless Love wouldn\u2019t hesitate to include such a track on one of their albums, too \u2026 all the comparisons aside, next is the raw-sounding, straight-in-your-face title track that\u2019s a result of \u201cmixed\u201d heritage if there was one \u2013 Def Leppard\u2019s \u201cPour Some Sugar On Me\u201d against Appetite For Destruction era Guns N\u2019Roses. And speaking of the latter band, fiery punk-ish riffs in \u201cOut Of Control\u201d are much Appetite-flavored, too, not even to mention Bulletrain\u2019s singer Sebbe (Sebastian Sundberg) sounding as aggressive as Axl Rose once did (and now he only wishes he could).<\/p>\n

\u201cPhantom Pain\u201d is a melodic mid-tempo that has some certain quality of radio-friendliness to it, especially its slightly poppy choruses heavily contrasted with the blistering guitar solo that is definitely of the old school of six string playing. Another interesting contrast is that in \u201cBad Blood (Out Of Love)\u201d, mellow and acoustic-driven verses against strong, hooky choruses. \u201cDicing With Death\u201d is a short and energy-laden track driven with some furious fast-paced riffs, preceding \u201cTake Me To The Sun\u201d there\u2019s nothing bad to say about except for the fact it kind of follows the same scheme the majority of tracks on the album do. With \u201cJoanna\u2019s Secret\u201d being no different, too, there\u2019s a danger of Bulletrain getting more and more repetitive one song after another \u2013 and that is perhaps the only disadvantage to their music, even though it\u2019s well-performed and full of energy.<\/p>\n

Bulletrain\u2019s debut Start Talking<\/em> is a good album in many respects, as it brings a solid and generous dose of straightforward, raw rock\u2019n\u2019roll with some punk-ish influences here and there, spiced up a bit with the guitar-laden heavy metal sound. It\u2019s loud, proud and noisy, raw and thus authentic, and laden with the incredible amount of the inexhaustible energy. However, with one song awfully similar to another, the formula soon starts to wear out \u2013 the band\u2019s first effort being therefore full of potential, but also screaming for more diversity music-wise. Let\u2019s hope the talented Swedes will introduce more versatility to their repertoire with what will be the follow-up to Start Talking, this one nevertheless being a good start. On the other hand, isn\u2019t that our beloved AC\/DC is guilty of exactly the same \u201ccrime\u201d since more or less 40 years? And still, if you\u2019re into fun, noisy sleaze rock with some touches of heavy and a certain degree of radio-friendliness, you may catch yourself thinking it\u2019s not really revelatory what the Swedish band presents, too, but you\u2019ll dig it anyway.<\/p>\n

Genre: Hard Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nSebbe – Vocals
\nMatt – Lead Guitar
\nRobin – Rhythm Guitar
\nJonas – Drums
\nNiklas – Bass<\/p>\n

Track List:
\n1.\tNothing But Trouble
\n2.\tAll For One
\n3.\tDark Days (Dark Nights)
\n4.\tFrom The Bottom Of My Heart
\n5.\tEven With My Eyes Closed
\n6.\tStart Talking
\n7.\tOut Of Control
\n8.\tPhantom Pain
\n9.\tBad Blood (Out Of Love)
\n10.\tDicing With Death
\n11.\tTake Me To The Sun
\n12.\tJoanna\u2019s Secret<\/p>\n

Label: AOR Heaven<\/p>\n

Website: http:\/\/www.bulletrain.org\/<\/a> – https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BULLETRAIN<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 7\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Senior Columnist — Never judge a book by its cover, the wise men say \u2013 and they couldn\u2019t be all wrong, could they? Upon the first look at the album cover […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":46506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[9075,10173,2317,1103,10174],"class_list":{"0":"post-46505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-aor-heaven","9":"tag-bulletrain","10":"tag-cd-review","11":"tag-hard-rock","12":"tag-start-talking"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46505","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=46505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}