{"id":49810,"date":"2015-07-09T06:26:33","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T11:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=49810"},"modified":"2015-07-09T06:26:33","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T11:26:33","slug":"shotgun-messiah-second-coming-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2015\/shotgun-messiah-second-coming-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Shotgun Messiah | Second Coming<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"ShotgunOriginally released in 1991, Second Coming<\/em> is the \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 second album from Swedish glam metal band Shotgun Messiah. The band, which was more or less Sweden\u2019s answer to the Hollywood hair metal scene, made a major splash with their self-titled 1989 debut, but the departure of frontman Zinny Zan forced them to change things up a bit. Tim Skold handed bass duties off to newcomer Bobby Lycon and took over on vocals.<\/p>\n

Lineup changes aside, Shotgun Messiah\u2019s hard hitting (and hard partying) sound was still very much in place on Second Coming<\/em>. They come on strong here, like a more metallic L.A. Guns. Beneath the crunching guitars and sleazy twang these songs are still very melodic, though they\u2019re a far cry from the band\u2019s more polished countrymen in Europe and Treat. Skold sounds great on vocals, and is a bit less abrasive than Zan was. He nails the sleaze rock sound perfectly, and has the kind of charisma to make songs like \u201cSexdrugsrockn\u2019roll\u201d and \u201cHeartbreak Blvd.\u201d impossible to resist. The band even manages to make the obligatory power ballad something special with \u201cLiving Without You.\u201d The surprise favorite on Second Coming has to be the band\u2019s raucous cover of the New York Dolls hit \u201cBabylon,\u201d which sounds like it was written just for Shotgun Messiah.<\/p>\n

Shotgun Messiah followed Second Coming<\/em> in 1992 with the I Want More<\/em> EP before changing directions dramatically with the industrial rock Violent New Breed<\/em> in 1993. The grunge takeover probably would have put an end to the band\u2019s party rocking days anyway.<\/p>\n

Second Coming<\/em> remains a totally rocking, totally fun album from a band that really should have had a higher profile at the time. Shotgun Messiah showed the world that Sweden\u2019s rock scene had more to offer than just Europe, and paved the way for sleaze rock revivalists like Hardcore Superstar and Crashdiet. If you\u2019re a die-hard fan of the \u201880s Hard Rock\/Glam Metal\/Hair Metal sound, this is an album you\u2019ll want to get your hands on, especially now that it has been reissued.<\/p>\n

Edition Notes: Divebomb Records reissued Second Coming<\/em> (as well as the Shotgun Messiah debut) earlier this year. Their reissue features newly remastered audio and a booklet that\u2019s loaded with band history, lyrics and vintage photos and press material. There are no bonus tracks, but just having this long out of print album back in fans\u2019 hands \u2013 and sounding better than ever \u2013 is reason to celebrate. As usual, it\u2019s limited to 1000 copies and is not available digitally.<\/p>\n

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

Lineup:
\nBobby Lycon (b)
\nStixx (d)
\nHarry Cody (g)
\nTim Skold (v)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tSexdrugsrockn\u2019roll
\n2.\tRed Hot
\n3.\tNobody\u2019s Home
\n4.\tLiving Without You
\n5.\tHeartbreak Blvd.
\n6.\tI Want More
\n7.\tTrouble
\n8.\tRide the Storm
\n9.\tI Wanna Know
\n10.\tBabylon
\n11.\tFree
\n12.\tYou and Me
\n13.\tCan\u2019t Fool Me<\/p>\n

Label: Divebomb
\nWebsite:
\nHardrock Haven Rating: 8.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist — Originally released in 1991, Second Coming is the \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 second album from Swedish glam metal band Shotgun Messiah. The band, which was more or […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":49811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12394],"tags":[2317,923,1094,1103,11363,11365,11360],"class_list":{"0":"post-49810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2015","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-divebomb-records","10":"tag-glam-metal","11":"tag-hard-rock","12":"tag-harry-cody","13":"tag-second-coming","14":"tag-shotgun-messiah"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49810","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=49810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}