"Hard Rock Reviver"-TOTALFAT

Following on from the review of "Tribute" it seemed to make sense to give some of the artists on that a chance to shine and with that in mind the second review on this site will be a review of "Hard Rock Reviver" by TOTALFAT.

The "Tribute" album was ended with Japanese band TOTALFAT doing an amazing cover of "Driver's High" and in "Hard Rock Reviver" they again show off their ability to cover songs and make them sound fresh and unique whilst also maintaining some of the character of the original tracks. In fact in many ways TOTALFAT could well have made a career from covering more well known artists.

Unlike "Tribute" however this album sees TOTALFAT covering various American rock musicians with tracks that more people will have heard of and of course more people will have their own views on.

The album kicks off with a cover of Mr Big's "Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy". Strangely despite being an American band Mr Big are probably bigger in Japan than they are in the US and have had major success throughout Asia. In many ways it's this link to Asia that has likely lead to TOTALFAT, a Japanese rock group, opening this album with a cover of a Mr Big track.

Although a rock track "Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy" sounded relatively weak originally. The TOTALFAT treatment however has given the song steroids and turned it into a very hard hitting track and makes it a brilliant way to begin the album, despite the track not being the most well known of the covers on the album.

The second track on the album is a cover of Van Halen's "Can't Stop Loving You". This time the track isn't really given a full make over. It sort of sounds like TOTALFAT have almost gone for a straight cover here and although it sounds fine it's certainly not one of the album's stand out tracks. The same can be said about the cover of "Someday I'll be Saturday Night" though they have re-created the song from the soft sounding Bon Jovi original and given it a rock make over that works well though doesn't stand out as amazing. Likewise the album's 4th track, a cover of the iconic "Kickstart my Heart" by Mötley Crüe, is another where the band do little more than give it a make over. That's not to say these are disappointing tracks, far from it, though for many the originals will be better with these tracks really splitting opinion.

The 5th track is another classic, "Shout it Out Loud" by KISS. The original, one of KISS's most played tracks, really has been given a fantastic make over as the band take on the original and again boost it with their own heavier sound. It'll be a controversial opinion but this actually sounds better and certainly sounds more like a modern rock track than the original. In many ways that's because KISS's original studio version lacks the energy of this cover.

British Heavy Metal legend Ozzy Osbourne is the next to be covered with his brilliant "Ghost Behind My Eyes". Rather than cover this track directly the band have used the introduction from "Crazy Train", also by Ozzy. It seems clear that the band have realised they were never going to be able to do a cover that was as good as the original but have given the song a melodic make over. It takes away some of the "creepiness" of the original though will certainly appeal to fans of TOTALFAT and appears to a respectful make over of the original rather than a total re-imaginging of the track. With that in mind it works though again covering such a classic will leave many saying "the original was better" no matter how a good of a cover is recorded.

Guns'n'Roses are the next to be given a musical make over with TOTALFAT covering legendary drinking song "Nightrain". Again the cover is unlikely to please fans of the original though it's another good make over with the over-all sound being given a 21st century make over as opposed to any major changes. The vocalist does sound like he's trying to impersonate Axl Rose and this could be a point of contention for some listeners with Axl having one of those iconic voices though over-all it's certainly not a bad effort.

The closing track is "More than Words". Originally the track was a ballad by Extreme that featured only a simple and basic vocal and an acoustic guitar Gary Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt delivered a heart felt but very basic and open song. On an album dubbed "Hard Rock Reviver" it was clear that the song was going to get a make over though in fairness to TOTALFAT they've not gone over-board here despite throwing some some drums and an electric guitar into the mix. In many ways it is what one would expect from a rock version of the track. Of course by adding the extra musical layers some of the heart felt emotion is taken from the song though it's certainly not the worst cover of the song out there.

At just 8 tracks long the album is short and with it being entirely covers there is nothing particularly "original" about it. Saying that however it's enjoyable listen from start to end and if you just accept the songs for what they, makes overs of some classic songs, then it is a fine if short lived album. If, however, you can't get over the fact it's album of covers then this is really not worth your time or effort.

At it's current price it is on the costly side so it is hard to recommend, especially give it's shortness, though it is a solid enough effort if you don't mind spending a bit on a treat for yourself.