KROKUS - Hoodoo
March 29, 2010, 14 years ago
(Sony/RED)
Already firing on all guns with ‘06’s Hellraiser, Marc Storace raises the ante and rehabilitates the band’s classic lineup for a record that is rock-solid but easily digestible, and even a little unexpected in its clean sheen and simplicity. It’s almost as if egos and backbench brawls have been put aside within the band and between the band and its competitors for relevance in a much heavier modern day. Hoodoo is like a Protooled One Vice At A Time, a near Great White-meets-Status Quo head-nodding churn of heavy party boogie that goes straight for the booze cabinet but after a guilt-dissipating workout. The bad hair metal years aren’t addressed, nor is the Priest-emulating Headhunter era. No, Hoodoo is a celebration of that thing Krokus hammered away at in all the records before, a sort of Rose Tattoo-ed AC/DC, but now it’s smart, direct, sort of Ballbreaker/Point Of Entry-ish, and fabulously loveable track after track, especially through those irresistibly weird chords of ‘Too Hot’, the swamp boogie of ‘Hoodoo Woman’ and the massive attack of opener ‘Drive It In’. Much of the rest is pure AC/DC worship, less impressive because it’s charmingly unambitious, but with Krokus, that’s close comfort and home cooking.
