(Album Review) WHITESPADE - Whitespade

Written by Jeff Tighe

With the passing into history of Motorhead in 2015, the mantle for heavy rock'n'roll champions in the style of Lemmy and Co. was picked up by the UK's Asomvel. Now Midnight main man Athenar, along with Vandallus members Vanik and Steve "SS" Dukuslow, have put together an American claim to most, and best, Motorhead-influenced band.

This ten-song, 34-minute, independent release could easily be called a Motorhead tribute album, since the influence of the latter legends is obvious throughout. But these original songs are strong in their own right, and deserve to be judged as such.

The album kicks off on a high note with the speedy "Thundercharge" with both a catchy riff and lyrics. This is followed by "Below the Law" which starts with a rumbling, distorted bass sound by vocalist, bassist Athenar, that will sound familiar to most metalheads. The bad attitude and musical kicks to the head continue with "Spit in Your Eye" and "Wired in Red".

Probably the weakest tracks are "Fast Lane to Nowhere" and "No Limits" which are slower, plodding numbers that lose their charm fairly quickly, and should have been under 3 minutes like some of the other songs, instead of the 4 minutes that they are.

Other better tracks include "Leatherbound Glory" and "On the Loose". Vanik's guitar work, both rhythm and lead is appropriate to the proceedings, being fairly simple, but blistering nonetheless, and the same can be said of the drumming by SS. Athenan's vocals are as harsh as one would want and expect on such an album, but he is clearly making an effort to sing with a little more harmony than his vocals with Midnight.

The bottom line here is that if you are a fan of Motorhead or other hard rock'n'roll bands like Nashville Pussy or the Supersuckers, you will find lots to enjoy in this album.

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