Midnight Crisis “Heart Beatings”

Opinions may be divided about drummers becoming front men (for every Dave Grohl there’s a Phil Collins) but Marty E. (Formerly of The Dirty Pearls) is promising something a bit different with this new venture. He is still delivering a rock sound but this is more of a dark, deep and dirty sound with a punk rock feel to it.

It may be just us but when we hear opening number “Take Control” we instantly get Motley Crue’s ‘Primal Scream’ as an ear worm. It has that same feel of essentially a huge sleaze rock song but almost being put through an ‘industrial sound’ filter. It is also built around big drums and a huge sleazy guitar riff. It’s a similar sound adopted on songs like “Midnight Somewhere” and “Lost And Found”

There is almost a ‘Goth’ feel to numbers like “Sister Vicodin” and “Make It Alright”. A lot of that is due to the vocals which have a deeper more sinister tone. In fact, the album also sees us recalling Shotgun Messiah a sadly overlooked band who successfully transitioned from a glam rock band to a far more aggressive sound (indeed bassist/singer Timm Skold went on to work with Marilyn Manson).

That’s not to say that Midnight Crisis aren’t a band who are afraid of a bit of fun. As shown by the brilliant “My Apocalipps” a song which is the kind of dirty, throwaway rock song that you’d like to think the New York Dolls would be delivering if they were still around now. That’s all before we are again drawn to the dark side with the sinister musings of “Bloodbath Wine”.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a band trying to deliver this type of sound. It’s good to see a band trying to go beyond the bounds of the usual sleaze rock sound. They are approaching it in a far darker way which brings out the sinister side of rock n roll. It’s the kind of music you’d want to hear in a dark, smoke filled basement club full of people dressed in black.