Wyldsky - Wyldsky Album Review

Review of Wyldsky's Debut Self-Titled Album, out on 7th January on MMG

I'll be brutally honest: I desperately wanted to hate the debut album from American Rock Monsters Wyldsky. At times it's difficult to tell if they are a joke band, and they have a clunky, misspelled name, which stinks of Ratt, or Motley Crue. They tick the big rock cliché boxes like it's a challenge, but then you hear the music, which is the most important thing.

After track one: Next World, I was primed and ready to write a completely negative review. The song is a weird mix of Motley Crue meets Korn, which is a combination that I've never really wanted to try out. The riffs are chunky, but bring a horrible tone reminiscent of the early 2000's nu-metal fad. However, after this terrible start on entirely the wrong foot, Wyldsky whip back the curtain and reveal to you that they are a good times Rock'n'roll band with so much swagger and chutzpah that they would put even a band like Aerosmith to shame these days.

Holding On is a big rock ballad, and a million miles in the right direction away from the nu-metal strains of Next World. The lead guitar work is fantastic and the vocals rasp around it, stopping the music from ever becoming too mushy and romantic.

One of the albums many strengths in fact are its slower and more quiet songs. My Baby and Nightmare and a Dream have come straight from the Guns'n'Roses school of big rock ballads, with big vocals, intricate acoustic guitar work and guitar solos that wouldn't look out of place being played atop a cliff by a man with long hair and no shirt.

The album is not all ballads though. Recent single Dog Daze sounds like The Rolling Stones being kicked into gear, and Wild Honey turns the cliché knob right the way round. It starts off with Bill and Ted-esque guitar widdling, before a motorbike revs up, leading you into the biggest hair metal rehash this side of 1990. It's big, it's stupid, it's been done before, but it doesn't matter: it's massively entertaining.

The album's final track Goodbye Good Riddance is an upbeat but more subtle song, following the blue print set out by Motley Crue's 'Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)'. The musicianship on display is fantastic, and the band's sense of humour comes to the fore.

Wyldsky are the type of band that Nirvana supposedly killed off in 1992. This album is a huge pot of clichés. It's dumb and it's silly but it's a whole hell of a lot of fun. As far as Wyldsky are concerned; tonight we're going to party like it's 1985!

Ben Walton