KICKHUNTER
Southern Kicks (2014)

This German band plays for a long time and have a lot of fans in his country. He was the opening act of Molly Hatchet in 2013 in Germany and of Dan Reed Network. They have a deal with the German label Phoenix Records just like Doc Holliday or Lizard. Musicians are high level ones, especially the guitar players. Their last album has a good production and their style is a kind of Big Rock with southern influences.

This album begins with "Wild Emotions", a good rock song. "Walls" is in the same way, just before the beautiful ballad "Let it Shine", with a guitar full of emotion and feeling.

But why do they play "Caroline" a Status Quo cover? Their version is less good than the original song, and a bad choice. "Feels like Home" is another beautiful ballad, but the singer voice is not at the top, even if the southern influence and final are nice. "Ain't got nothin' better" is a fast southern rock, with a good solo and an interesting break. "Smile, smile, smile" looks like a Southern boogie, but miss the target, maybe because of the singer voice… or maybe the lack of swing. You can't have it if you are born of the other side of the Mason Dixon line! "Mine all mine" drums intro is close to .38 Special "Gipsy Belle" even is the end of the song is not really good. "Child of Love" song is really close to Donnie Van Zant band on "20th Century Fox". This song is not really good with a bad organ solo and a guitar solo even not original. He's not Don Barnes.

They try to play come country on "Call my Name", but the singer voice is not good enough. He's not another Johnny Cash. But, however, the rest is great, with a guitar solo that seems to come from Nashville. "Good to be Alive" is the third ballad, it's too much. The hyper speed boogie "Boogie Town" is not really new but shows that they all are good music players.

To conclude, we have here a good cd, with good and less good songs. There are some mistakes -singer voice, choruses- but this is a good production. But take care! Let's hope they remember where they came from. Good luck, guys!

Olivier Aubry






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