What we have here is a band that is as concerned with its image and 'the look' as the music itself. Sometimes getting quite silly; and by silly, don't think Manowar or Dream Evil; think GWAR. Which is exactly why I am not docking points for the pretentious stupidity of this album; because it is entirely intentional and works very well with what the album is about.
Anyway, onto the music then…Lordi play traditional heavy metal. Kiss are definitely an inspiring force for this band, as I'm sure are Sentenced. The vocalist seems to be going out of his way to sound like Ville Lahila of Sentenced at times. Furthermore, the intensity levels of this music also resemble that of Sentenced; hence, a "Hard Rock" categorization may not be too far out of the line, but this is still firmly rooted in what pure heavy metal is about.
I cannot praise this disc enough. Without a doubt, this is definitely one of the best releases of the year…it is that damn good! Lordi are not an original band by any means; but they throw such catchy melodies, riffs and all out fun heavy metal stompers that it would be a great loss for a pure metal fan to pass this one up. I can tell this band puts on a great live show because pretty much every track on here has that anthemic feel to it, with chunky riff work and shout along choruses. Keyboard support is also done very well. My main complaint about this disc however is that every single track without exception starts off with fucktarded intros and sound effects, insect noise, dog porn and God knows what other sound effects these guys had lying around the studio that they decided to shove into every single track as intros. It gets really annoying after the first couple of times.
In any case….if you can get past the silliness of the Slipknot/Kiss inspired masks, the 'monster' theme and lyrics, you will definitely enjoy this album. If you don't want to think too much and just want a fun album to crank, look no further…
