Cruzh – The Jungle Revolution
Cruzh – The Jungle Revolution
Frontiers Srl
Release Date: 22/03/24
Running Time: 49:00
Review by Metalphysicist
8.5/10
This second album from the Swedish band Cruzh, “The Jungle Revolution”, is an interesting mixture of songs defined by bubble gum and catchy choruses with a couple of hooks here and there, to keep Glam Metal fans fuelled with dopamine during the whole album audition.
That doesn’t mean that Cruzh is only a revival tribute band from 80’s Glam at all. What we have on “The Jungle Revolution” is a bunch of very good musicians and composers from the so-called New Wave of Swedish Glam Metal scene. To be honest, I was a huge fan of the Sunset Strip bands, back in the days, but I lost interest in that kind of musical style when Trixter and Nelson began to play on MTV’s heavy rotation, while the embarrassing Winger’s ballad ‘Miles Away’ was #1 on the now defunct MTV.
And, as I took a step out from that musical scene, I wasn’t interested in listening to bands like Backyard Babies, Crazy Lixx, Hardcore Superstars, and other Swedish bands, in the early 2000’s, I guess. Maybe I should have paid attention to them, but it is not every day that I am into happy and childish songs that comes around and goes around on the radio ( see what I did there? Mentioning Tuff’s debut album) and there are times in my life that I wasn’t up to having ‘nothing but a good time’ every damn weekend.
However, “The Jungle Revolution” is an album above average that bring us good Glam songs such as the first single taken from the album, ‘FL89’, that reminds me of Poison – definitely the Cruzh’s musicians do appreciate Poison a lot (you only have to skip CC Deville and replace him with a proper guitar player, and you got the ‘FL89’ vibe).
The production of the record is in good hands, highlighting heavy guitar riffs, good guitar solos and a triggered drum assault that redefines Glam Metal with a much heavier approach, without letting go of the bubble gum choruses, as is the case of the song ‘Split Personality’.
Of course there are a couple of fillers on “The Jungle Revolution”, such as ‘At The Radio Station’ and also the inevitable ballad ‘From Above’, which is a little redundant nowadays – but that is no different from what happened back in the L.A. Scene – “Girls, Girls, Girls” from Mötley Crüe is the best example of fillers, and there are plenty of bad ballads (‘Bad Boys Boogie’, ‘Sumthin’ for Nuthin’ and ‘You’re all Need’ … ).
Fun fact: Last Sunday I covered the Glam Fest BR gig – in São Paulo, Brazil – and the line up included Stevie ‘TUFF’ Rachelle and fucking Pretty Boy Floyd playing all the songs from “Leather Boyz with Electric Toyz”, with Steve Summers at his best. That was like a dream come true for an old lad like me who has venerated Pretty Boy Floyd since I was 14 years old. And the band who closed that night was Crazy Lixx, when most of the audience decided to leave the venue after the third song of Crazy Lixx’s performance (me included). I guess that there is no ground for Swedish bands to battle against those legitimate Sunset Strip Glam bands at all.
Anyway, I think that Cruzh has something relevant delivered on “The Jungle Revolution” and, maybe, they might be the new Swedish’s ‘toast of the town’, who knows? So, if you are into great Glam Metal music, just go for it!
TRACKLISTING:
01. The Jungle Revolution
02. Angel Dust
03. FL89
04. Killing In the Name Of Love
05. SkullCruzher
06. At The Radio Station
08. Split Personality
09. Sold Your Soul
10. From Above
11. Winner
12. Gimme Anarchy
LINE – UP:
Alex Waghorn – lead vocals
Anton Joensson – guitar, background vocals
Dennis Butabi Borg – bass, background vocals
Johan Öberg – guitar
Matt Silver – drums, background vocals
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