Lessons in Decay Taught by Helldorados

From Stuttgart, Germany comes Helldorados. This raw sounding helping of straightforward heavy sleaze/punk rock is the sophomore effort from the Germans who have set stages for the likes of Y&T, Rhino Bucket, The Darkness and Bullet. The title, Lessons in Decay may elude that this is an album more fitted into the death metal category, but that’s not the case at all. Chock full of simple driving style tunes loaded with riffs, Helldorados have delivered a fairly decent effort with Lessons in Decay. Helldorados are comprised of Pierre handling vocals, Gunnar the bass, Steve the guitars and Chris on the drums.

“Seven Deadly Sins” leads the charge with a four count in German and then some raw guitar riff. The pulse-pounding track has some punk influences to it, but there’s nothing too original or ground blazing here. The vocals seem to be a little on the weak side to me, strongest during the group vocal choruses. The shortest of the eleven tracks on Lessons in Decay comes next with “In For the Kill” at just under three minutes starting great until the vocals kick in and the tempo changes make it seem a little disjointed at times. The charging riffs push “By the Progress” forward, Pierre‘s vocals sounding more fitting on this one. Not sure what they’re suggesting with the title“The Devil Takes the Hindmost” but the song really reminds me of a Rhino Bucket track that didn’t make the cut. “Anytime Anywhere” seems to be an attempt at the radio friendly, which I must admit was rolling around in my head several days after listening. “Let Us Play” falls into the same vein while “Megalomaniac” leans more towards the thrash sound. “Wake Up Dead”, not a Megadeth cover, struck me as pretty close to “Shake Me” from Cinderella at the start but opens up into a rather mundane track. “To Live Is To Die” picks things up a little, but again the vocals just don’t seem to match or work for me here, something that’s been abundant throughout this release. “Something Sweet” starts out great musically but becomes nothing short of ridiculous when they begin to sing about burgers, pizza and other silliness. Sure makes it seem like they don’t want anyone to take them seriously. Lessons in Decay wraps up with “We Won’t Back Down” another mundane attempt that just misses the mark.

Overall there’s a few tracks here that just don’t seem to fit well with the rest, but it’s not a terrible album, just not an awesome one either. “By the Progress” would probably be the stand out for me a beacon of light in the tunnel of album mundanity and here’s the video for it below.

BUY: Helldorados – Lessons In Decay