Monster Truck – Warriors
Release Date: 30th September 2022
Label: BMG Records
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Genre: Classic Hard Rock, Blues Rock, Swamp Rock.
FFO: Black Stone Cherry, The Cadillac Three, Nickelback.
Review By: Paul Franklin
Have you ever watched a Monster Truck show?
That’s the vehicles over-endowed in the wheel department, sporting garish paint jobs and going by names such as Grave Digger, Blue Thunder and Megalodon, as opposed to the Canadian hard rock foursome, sporting tattoos, leather and going by the names Jon, Jeremy, Brandon and Steve.
Having said that, one could very easily be the soundtrack to the other. The bombastic riffs and thundering rhythms of title track Warriors just as likely to get hundreds of giant foam hands raised in a beer-soaked salute as the thundering big block engines of the automotive behemoths.
Lead single Golden Woman is played with the turbo-charged thrill of a teenage wet dream. Although, you do have to wonder if the titular lady is then the one caught ‘Doing things I couldn’t get her to do to save my life’ in the southern blues stomp of Get My Things and Go. The latter featuring a guest spot from Black Stone Cherry’s Chris Robertson and being the best track of the album.
Whilst Fuzz Mountain lays claim to be built on some Sabbath-esque foundations and (as the title suggests) Country Livin’ eschews a southern fried relaxed vibe, it can’t detract from the fact that there is also some very generic material filling out the rest of the runtime.
Therein lies the problem with both iterations of Monster Truck, they lack the variety and depth to be enjoyed in anything other than that brief 2–3-minute burst of noise and excitement. There may be a different shiny coat of paint, cool name or fancy body kit, but underneath it’s all hung on the same basic structure from the 70s/80s and……after all, there are only so many ways you can crush a car!
(2.5 / 5)
