Review: Bullet Boys – Elefante 

Cleopatra/Rexel (2015)

Reviewer: Phil Schofield

It’s been a six year hiatus since we last heard from the darlings of the LA strip The Bullet Boys.

Back in 88 Warner Brother launched the debut with promise of greater times ahead. However with the imminent “grunge Godzilla” laying just around the corner a lot of those new proclaimed kings of sleaze were simply chewed up & spat out.

In Marq Torien we have a troubadour journeyman with a smoky vocal style and range that should on paper have other bigger artists clambering for his signature.

Elefante is not simply an attempt at 80’s rehash, so says the PR and agreed they have gone for a discernible change of style and direction in parts. But as the saying goes, why try to fix what isn’t broken.

There’s a whole plethora of similar sounding rock albums out in 2015 all fighting hard to capture our ears,  so it’s tough enough to see if this one has stamina for the journey.

Out of the blocks comes opener ‘Rollover’ with a pounding bass line and Slash sounding vibe, nice and appealing to the heavier crossover market.

‘Tsunami’ has a more modern edge and flavour, whilst ‘Symphony’ has been around as the single prior to the album release. Indeed the latter I could see as a chant along for the hardcore BB fans. A slow burner that builds and the catchiest song for me here.

‘The Villain’ & ‘Kin Folk’ are mid paced offerings whilst ‘Saving You from Me’ & ‘As Dumb As’ have an ironic grunge vocal drift into Foo Fighters territory.

Album favourite is ‘Superhuman Girl’, this could easily take us back to those Hollywood sleaze ridden days & Marq shows he still has that rasping bourbon attack.

‘Drop your Weapon’ offers some catchy guitar phasing moving into the territory of an album cover version. Here we find Elton John’s ‘The Bitch Is Back’ which has a new rock cover twist but I do recall being covered also by Lita Ford a while back.

On the whole Elefante will appease those bullet hungry hoards to play this platter again & with upcoming gigs lined up a few well chosen tracks could make the playlist.

They say elephants never forget but boy is my memory is fading?