(c) 2024 SUiCiDE Records
- Intro: Candy Girls Worldwide
- Dynamite Playboys
- Take It Off
- Tonight Belongs To Us
- Out Of Love
- You Better Believe It
- All For The Candy
- Caligulizer
- Videodrome 2049
- Last Call
- Where Time Always Goes
- Outro: Fin De Cette Motherf**king Transmission
"The Sleaze Fuhrer" Chris Damien Doll--Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
"The Sex Toy" Stevie Teaze--Lead Guitars, Backing Vocals
"The Thunder Mechanic" C. Slim--Bass, Backing Vocals
"The Beat Commando" Lyle Starr--Drums
The Bombers are back! The Bombers are back!
Five years since the boys unleashed the sleazy deliciousness of Murder Couture, the entire crew is back to wreak havok once again with their latest slab of sonic mayhem, All For The Candy. Coming off such an extended break can sometimes be an issue for bands, but with all the boys back, I had high hopes for this one when it came oozing across my desk...
There is absolutely no slacking off for these boys as the band picks up right where they left off...which is with one of the band's signatures (and one of my pet peeves)...the intro. As has been the case on all of the band's albums, we have both an intro and an outro to work around on this latest effort, but at just :28 seconds, the intro was at least an opportunity for me to try top recall some high school French, which I failed to do, and we are quickly into the real meat of the album in a flash.
"Dynamite Playboys" is a vicious...VICIOUS...metallic assault on the eardrums, with Starr absolutely demolishing his kit in machine-gun fashion, as the Bombers scream to life in near thrash fashion! Seriously, this is a fierce way to open things up musically, and I wonder if the intro wasn't actually a great idea here, as going from complete silence to "Dynamite Playboys" might be enough to lay an average man low! Doll is at his gritty, snarling best here, with urgent-sounding backing vocals bolstering the sound, and the savagery of Doll's rhythm guitar, paired with Slim's bass, create an absolutely rock-solid sonic path for Teaze to send his leads screaming across! It is evident these guys did not just sit back and hide behind their masks during the pandemic-fueled layoff of a couple of years, as these guys are laser-sharp and virgin-tight from note one, and "Dynamite Playboys" jumped immediately into my gym workout rotation the moment I finished hitting repeat!
"Take It Off" tames the savage beast just a bit, at least as far as tempo goes, but that's probably due to the additional dose of sleaze drizzled across the track. The tone Teaze uses here hearkens back to the style and sound employed by the gutter-trash heroes of the Sunset Strip's underbelly in its 80s hey day. As has always been the case with this band, Doll doesn't feel the need to try to scrape rafters with high-pitched screams and falsetto wails, instead employing a gutteral, sneering style that adds to the nastiness of the music, and on "Take It Off", this is used to masterful effect.
Slim is given a bit of a chance to let his bass step into the spotlight on the intro of "Tonight Belongs To Us," which picks the tempo back up just a bit and adds in a bit of an LA Guns vibe. Particularly strong here are the gang-shouted backing vocals and the hard-charging rhythm guitars of Doll, which might be one of the most overlooked strengths of the band. Again, this is an absolutely locked-in track with one of the best leads from Teaze on the entire album. Even though this isn't my absolute favorite track on the album, it is so freaking good that an album of songs of this quality would be better than 90% of the schlock that gets sent to my inbox and my mailbox on a regular basis. This is top-shelf stuff, folks!
"Out Of Luck" is a wicked good track that takes things down a slightly different path musically, as there is a classic 80s Scorpions vibe to the lead guitars that is impossible to miss. In no way am I saying this is a rip-off track, and I am definitely not saying it is a skip/filler track, as it 100% needs to be heard, but there is an undeniable style change here that I think showcases the band's versatility more than anything. The production, the rhythm guitars, the vocals are all still very much in the modern sleaze vein, but the retro twist to the guitars tone and approach is fun and had me hitting repeat more than once.
"You Better Believe It" again leans heavily on some excellent lead work from Teaze and the really strong gang vocals that are present throughout the record. I don't recall the boys sounding this vocally tight on past albums (I'm going to need to check on those first couple of records again), but this is a continuation of the maturing process I think they really showed with Murder Couture, which in 2019 I considered to be "the pinnacle of the band's catalog," it was so strong. These guys know who they are and how they want to sound, and the have mastered what a Suicide Bombers track should be...with "You Better Believe It" falling firmly into that category.
Speaking of definitive songs, the album's title track is up next and would be my favorite of the album were it not for "Dynamite Playboys" and a surprise at the end of the album (more on that in a bit). "All For The Candy" is another absolute screamer of a track, that may not be quite as aggressive as "...Playboys" but doesn't miss by much. The filth flies off the rhythm guitars here and Doll spits and snarls his way through the verse sections, meeting up at the chorus with Teaze and Slim, who throw their own voices into the mix in a perfect storm of nastiness! The lyrical aim of the track is impossible to miss, as Doll sneers "I get hard...know what I mean? I ain't hard to please...get down on your knees!" and with a guitar tone as raunchy as the lyrics, this is pretty much modern sleaze at its finest.
"Caligulizer" is a snotty, punk-infused banger that carries a guitar tone reminiscent of GnR's "Out Ta Get Me", but features far better backing vocals and a much bigger drum sound. "Videodrome 2049" is another clenched-fist rocker that cruises along atop a concrete rhythm section and Doll employs a ballsy swagger to his vocals, especially on the chorus section, that is missing in so much music these days.
"Last Call" is one more big, thundering track with a huge drum presence and a savage rhythm guitar line that again hints at LA Guns but with nastier intent. Teaze absolutely goes off in an attempt to melt his fretboard on the solo, and I'm pretty sure Starr is on his 9th or 10th set of heads on his kit by now, as he absolutely lays waste to the drums here. To me, this would have been the perfect track to end on (outro track excepted), were it not for the inclusion of "Where Time Goes Away."
I'll be perfectly candid; "Where Time Goes Away" throws me for a bit of a loop. Heck, it flips me for a doozie of a loop! Never in my craziest of musical dreams does Suicide Bombers pull off something on this level, and that's not a knock on the band, because I love these guys and what they do. And it's not that I hate the track, because it is 100% the opposite. It's an insanely well-written ballad, with a level of muscianship that is stupifying. A piano leads the track, adding a chill that is matched only by the equally haunting tone of Teaze's guitar. Doll proves he can back off of the snarl and deliver his vocals in a far more emotive...dare I say gothic style...while refusing to stray from the violent, sleazy lyrical approach the Sleaze Fuhrer typically employs. "Where helicopters collide, and explode in slow motion..." What the hell is that? Nobody writes lyrics like that, especially for a ballad! I have to admit that I find myself drawn into the epic darkness of the lyrics, and I can't say enough about the musicality of this song...it's stunning! I just am not 100% sure it fits the rest of the album. There is nowhere else this track could have been placed without it coming across as jarring as plowing your car straight into a concrete wall at 120 mph...without a seatbelt....and it would have been an incredible shame for people to not be able to hear the exquisite musicianship and songcrafting at work here. This is the Bomber's "November Rain", an epic that truly deserves to be heard, but is unlike anything you have ever heard from the band you thought you knew so well. Should it have been a bonus track after the outro? Perhaps as a hidden track? No...too many people would have missed it. Maybe it doesn't matter if it fits the rest of the album. Maybe all that matters is that you hear this thing and marvel at what the Suicide Bombers have created here.
While it seemed crazy to consider that this band could improve upon Murder Couture, Doll, Teaze, Slim, and Starr have done just that, pushing themselves to be even tighter, even more aggressive, and even sleazier than on albums past! Expect All For The Candy to be right there at or near the top of numerous "best of 2024" lists when the year comes to a close! This is modern sleaze done right! Hopefully we won't have to wait another half-decade for the Bomber Boys to return this time around!
Rating: Exquisitely Crankable! Turn this sleazy scorcher up to 9.5!
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