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Kobra and the Lotus - Kobra and the Lotus (Universal/Spinefarm)
Big-voiced Canadian on the way to metal glory...
9 Aug 2012 - 11:30pm
Kobra Paige and her band of thrusting young metallians are, to coin a phrase, ready to rock. After a first album that, in the girl's own words, was 'rock with a bit of metal thrown in', Canada's finest exponents of female-fronted metal nirvana are back with an album which is nothing if not metal. Actually it's very metal. There's not one concession to the mainstream on KatL; rather, what you get for your hard earned is ten tracks of no-holds barred, um, balls to the wall HEAVY METAL, all of which throw subtlety out of the window with a cheeky grin and a wink, knowing full well that the irresistible charm of the riffage on offer (and Paige's bellicose bawling, natch) will win you over after just a couple of listens to this infectious album.
Trad metal's the game and in Kobra Paige Canada would at last appear to have a metal queen to take up the mantle of Lee Aaron; She's working in that same field of epic, sword n'sorcery metal as the blessed Lee did all those years ago, but the difference – and it's a pretty big one, all things considered – is that everywhere you look on this album you'll find solid gold, bona fide top drawer heavy metal thunder. Of course, ol' money bags himself Gene Simmons wouldn't be involved if he didn't sniff success (Kobra and the Lotus are actually signed to Simmons' own label, Simmons Records), so it's no surprise that the word CLASS springs to mind every time you start listening to this album; but honestly, Ms Aaron would have killed to be associated with such pedal to the metal hysteria-provoking nuggets of brilliance as No Rest for the Wicked, Welcome to my Funeral or Sanctuary… all of which are songs hewn from the adamantine halls of metal glory.
If there is one small area of disquiet it's that some of the material passes you by a little samily, and this isn't aided by Paige's tendency to sometimes slip into a declamatory stentorian bellow, but even this could actually be seen as a youthful over enthusiasm for bombastic metal getting its own way ahead of slightly more refined songwriting smarts and is surely something that will have been ironed out come album number three. The longa nd the short of it is that this is a damn fine straight up heavy metal record that not only hits the spot today, it also bodes incredibly well for Kobra and the Lotus for tomorrow and beyond…
Spinefarm
2012 releases
Canadian heavy metal
Scott Adams
Joined:: 12 years 44 weeks ago
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