“Johnny Gruesome“ is the new horror novel by the aspiring author Gregory Lamberson, who has already earned some fame with his critically acclaimed debut “Personal Demons” and now unleashes the story of the “Headbanger from Hell” as his second offering.
And since the tale of the rebellious Heavy Metal kid Johnny Grissom, who gets murdered by a drug dealer and returns from the grave as a vengeful zombie, is almost predestined to be covered by all different kinds of media, Greg Lamberson has not only put out some cool online comics and shot a “Johnny Gruesome” short flick starring Erin “Misty Mundae” Brown in the lead, but he has also given the Canadian songwriter-couple Giasone and Marcy Italiano the permission to record a totally awesome shockrock CD based on the story of “Johnny Gruesome”.
This wonderful gruesical starts with a short intro and then immediatly emerges into the first big highlight, namely the incredibly cool rocker “Rigor Mortis”, which sounds to me as if the Canadian rock warrior Jon Mikl Thor would lilt a Billy Joel song while lingering across an eerie graveyard at midnight. That song does definitly have some real hit feeling!!
And the following hard rock smashers like “Over The Hill”, “Monster”, “Aunt Alicia” and “Gruesome” can easily keep pace with the fantastic opener, since they all are totally kick-ass as well and got great choruses, catchy melodies and a very special morbid charme.
While writing this album, Marcy and Giasone Italiano must surely have listened to a lot of classic shock rock legends like Alice Cooper, Kiss, Twisted Sister, WASP, Ramones and the Rocky Horror Picture Show, cause these are some of the killer bands that the music on “Johnny Gruesome” reminds me of.
However, the album now continues with a snotty, little blues song called “Graveyard Blues”, which could also have been written by Ghoultown or The Coffinshakers and a disturbing interlude called “Mary Whispers”, before it reaches its climax with the energetic neckbreaker “Sorry Mary” and the doomy riffmonster “Death Mobile”!! These two tracks embody all the strengths and qualites of ”Johnny Gruesome” and definitly rank among the highlights of this great CD!!
The only point of criticsm on Johnny Gruesome’s rollercoaster ride through the rotten world of Rock’n’Roll would be the very short playing time of not even half an hour. Two or three extra songs and an overall playing time of at least 35-40 minutes surely wouldn’t have done the record any bad at all.
But never mind, cause in spite of the short playing time the price of 16$ incl. P&P to overseas is still pretty fair and fan-friendly and the 10 songs are also just too good to be missed by any fan of dark and macabre rock-, metal- and punk music.
No matter if you’re looking for a cool soundtrack for the next ride in your “Death Machine”, if you’re in desperate need for a gruesome birthday present for your cranky “Aunt Alisha” or if you just wanna listen to some killer Rock’n’Roll that wakes the “Monster” in you (in the truest sense of the word), one thing is for sure: You definitly can’t go wrong with this great CD!!

87% by Tobi (14.02.2008)