Label : P-Dog Records
Review by Tony Cannella
Never judge a book by its cover or a band by their name. I was way surprised when I first listened to the 2nd album “Bitten” by New Jersey based hard rock band Spider Rockets. Odd name, I thought. With a name like that they must be some 80s style glam rock band. This is why you should never go into listening to new music with preconceived ideas – I couldn’t be more wrong. Sure they add some of the best elements from 80s hard rock, combined with some modern metal riffs to create one of the more surprising albums of the year, “Bitten”.
Spider Rockets comes at you straight-ahead with all the enthusiasm and swagger of punk combined with melodic hard rock which helps make the album instantly memorable. I liked the vocals of Helena Cos. She has very a rocking approach that is perfect for Spider Rockets. The opening riff to the first track “Going Down” is a fine introduction and already they are different from what I expected. The riff kind of reminds me a bit of “Symphony of Destruction” by Megadeth at times. “So High” opens with a gritty, grungy riff that propels this excellent song. The triumvirate of “Scream”, “Don’t Need You” (probably my favorite song) and “Break” keeps things on a steady course. The biggest surprise for me (and pleasantly so) was Spider Rockets’ cover of “Twilight Zone” the second most well known song from the Dutch rockers Golden Earring. The great “Radar Love” has been covered to death (with rarely positive results) so I give Spider Rockets a ton of credit for covering “Twilight Zone”. And you know what? They do an excellent version of the song. “Bitten” falters a bit on the last two songs “Nothing Left” and “Bring Me Around”, but that does not change the fact that overall this is a pretty strong album.
My one small criticism is the band name. I am not a huge fan of Spider Rockets as a band name but that doesn’t change the fact that the songs on “Bitten” are pretty damn good. Spider Rockets has a lot of great things going for them, and besides you have got to give high marks to any band who covers a Golden Earring song that is NOT “Radar Love”.
Rating – 88/100
Tracklist
- Going Down
- So High
- Scream
- Don’t Need You
- Break
- Gasoline
- Twilight Zone
- Better When It’s Loud
- Nothing Left
- Bring Me Around
Line Up
- Helena Cos – Vocals
- Johnny Nap – Guitars
- Tim Tobin – Bass
- Dan Prestup – Drums