Review: Bad Bones - High Rollers

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Bad Bones' press release states the following: "If you can imagine Van Halen, Scorpions, Motorhead and a glimpse of Iron Maiden mixed together, you’ll be getting close to the unique sound of Bad Bones."
They are from Italy and their second album, High Rollers was released in 2017. 

Interestingly enough, right out of the gate with the first song, "American Days", I was reminded of something that would've come out of Blaze Bayley era Iron Maiden, or even Bayley's former band, Wolfsbane themselves.
The Wolfsbane reference is there, not because they particularly sound like them, but because like that band, they will mix more traditional metal sections with hard old fashioned rock. I also hear an AOR sensibility in there (but for the sake of brevity I won’t go into AOR is in this particular review, (but check out this blog in the future into my analysis of that style of music).




The production is clear and as cutting as day, It’s cool to hear such a bright production on a band like this. Too slick and it would lose the power, but being as many albums are recorded digitally, if it’s raw and digital that is amongst the worst productions of modern day (though the rawness would come through well in analog of course).

But I digress, and let's back to the album.  "Lost Again" is the second song, and has the eighties hooks down pat, and then a Slash meets Schenker solo brings it all together.

The vocals are perfect in this band. One part Paul Rodgers and one part Don Dokken, the vocals avoid the annoying modern trappings that many bands are guilty of. However catchy or “commercial” the band gets, it’s never irritating in the way a lot of modern stuff is. You won’t be mistaking this for pop punk or post grunge anytime soon in other words.

“Wild Rose” is a bit more modern sounding speaking of this, but it never veers course in the way into mediocrity that a song like this could.

After that brief departure we get back to the grit, bluesiness and speed of "Midnight Rider", probably the best song on the album so far. Pure metal class on this one, and a hook most bands would kill for complete with more awesome shred guitar and driving bass.

Next song, "Solitary Fields" has a bass intro that almost has a Steve Harris feel to it, then goes into a semi ballad anthemic rocker with incredible guitar solos.

"Blood Trails" continues with some groovy seventies style riffage with an eighties sounding chorus (or maybe even a bit nineties). 

"Wolf Town" is a bit of a faster track, with a hook I like better than the prior two tracks and some really killer riffs.. 

"Story of a Broken Bone" is next, and has some cool blues and slide guitar parts.

"Rock'N'Me" is a cover of the original song by Steve Miller- and I will admit I like it better than the original (which I never dug that much). It's the earnestness and energy of Bad Bones that makes me prefer this over the original (which I don't usually say about cover versions).

I definitely dug this album. I would say that one minor quibble is that sometimes the hooks are a bit too clean. They could use a little bit more edge at times, especially during the middle songs on the album. It could be though that with repeated listens, the hooks will have their way and that's maybe what they had in mind with such melodic intent. 

Overall, I can most definitely recommend Bad Bones to fans of a wide swathe of hard rock and metal. Fans of many of the newer bands featured on MelodicRock.com, or of some of the bands mentioned in the review, or even of; Aerosmith, Slash, Guns and Roses, Myles Kennedy or related projects would do well to check out this band, who I'm also certain are a live draw as well.

You can check out Bad Bones from the following links:

https://www.reverbnation.com/badbones

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