ALBUM REVIEW: STEEL PANTHER - HEAVY METAL RULES

Steel Panther, are back again with their brand-new album Heavy Metal Rules. The 10 track album comes out hard and swinging, every song throwing you back to your best mates house parties listening to the sweet sounds of heavy metal. Not only is this album an ode to the metal heads at the party proudly showing their devil horns, but a celebration to a genre that has influenced music for more than 30+ years.

From start to finish, Steel Panther throw anthem after anthem at you, with laughs-a-rolling and plenty of riffs that stick with you til the very end. The album kicks off with a sound bite of a young person announcing their undying love to heavy metal and announcing all other genres such as proudly announcing punk should go to mars and how Madonna should go to hell, before roaring in with “All I Wanna Do is Fuck (Myself Tonight)”, a bold statement of male positivity in the most Steel Panther way possible. The album is soaked in the traditional 80’s sound of batshit craziness, full to the brim in the rich guitar tones of Satchel cutting in where needed without intruding. The best example is the evidently heart felt track “Always Gonna Be a Ho”, where you wouldn’t expect yourself to be singing the lyrics “It doesn’t matter where you go/You’re always gonna be a ho”. An evident throwback to the power ballads of old, yet the band mold the song into their own – guaranteed to make you laugh and bang you head. From here, the album plateaus – not necessarily in terms of strength but in terms of direction and fluidity. The rest of the tracks carry on the momentum brought forward, not relenting in their heaviness such as “I’m Not Your Bitch” which lays down one of Steel Panther’s heaviest riffs, with drummer Stix Zadinia laying down the groove that the band circles around like sharks. From “Fuck Everybody” to the albums titular track “Heavy Metal Rules”, the band make an open proclamation. They may be seen as a parody band but they revel in the sound artistically and as such able to make these tracks work. “Fuck Everybody” is a song that knows its stupid, but the band members just don’t care. This is their fun, their passion and they don’t care if they offend or annoy – the whole band are here to have a good time. Even the song “Gods of Pussy” knows not to take it seriously (the band released a fuzz pedal called The Pussy Melter after all), where they proclaim their love of, well, pussy. The album closes with “I Ain’t Buying What You’re Selling”, bringing the album to a close with a ballad akin to the likes of Poison and Kiss influences written all over it. Oddly enough, it’s actually a refreshingly open and honest track while keeping the tongue in cheek humor as it reflects on living life as a Rockstar who doesn’t care for the traditional keepsakes of today.

Five albums later and there’s no sign of Steel Panther slowing down any time soon. Their latest album is live a celebration of not only how far they’ve come as a band, but as a tribute to the heroes of the 80’s and how heavy metal has been able to define music, and Steel Panther gladly wear that on their sleeves. They’re not stopping any time soon, they’re not going to be giving up their style or signature look in order to sell out. Beyond the humor, that will have you laughing throughout the album, this record is a carefully constructed love letter to Steel Panther’s musical heroes while carving out a piece of musical history themselves – a band who have been dismissed as a parody reaching heights of fame and influence that wasn’t thought possible. As a result, the band remain defiant and stand triumphant to bringing sounds of the past to a new generation while maintaining the integrity of what makes the band unique. By crafting the influences of old and adding their own twist, Steel Panther are right – Heavy Metal Rules.

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Review by RockRevolt journalist Connor Flello