Stephen
As a young American band formed in 2011, SWITCHBLADE SERENADE is quite formidable in bringing back what the 80s rock was about. If you take a good listen to the instruments handling, these guys do have the real talent especially the guitar part. The obvious one can be heard on 'Axe To Grind', which for me is the best track here. A perfect combination of heavy metal stuffed with excellent riffs and a catchy melodic chorus. Although this song and 'Alive at Night' are heavy but actually most of this album are in the hard rock territory. I love 'Full Throttle' and 'Drive Me Insane', perhaps couple tracks that can compete with 'Axe To Grind'.
We can hear traces of classic touch of MOTLEY CRUE, GUNS N ROSES, and even a slight influence from Bay Area thrash acts. 'On The Run' is another potential hit but needs to be tweaked a bit on the chorus part. That also goes with 'Perfect Sin', will be a better song if they put a climactic chorus. For me, three tracks that sit at the low side of this album is 'Who Are You', which has fantastic riffs but weak chorus; 'Mouthful of Dirt', not bad but kinda average and I'm afraid it's forgettable; and 'The Ritual', which started like a thrash track then evolved to an OZZY OSBOURNE style.
For a debut, 'Alive at Night' is quite good to capture the 80s ambience and it did have many great songs and I love to hit replay for another spin. As a whole album, probably better to include couple more songs as I felt it's too short and will be nice to spice it up with a nice ballad. Vocal part is also felt too 'youthful' for some heavier tracks but all in all, musicianship part is satisfying. Nice release and hopefully the next one will be in an even better shape!