By Jonny Bakes
The guys at ÜRHQ know that I’m easily suckered in by a left-field sounding genre, which is how I came into possession of this particular album bearing a smiling fuscia-coloured planet. All because it declared that it is “fun metal” and, let’s face it, who doesn’t love a bit of fun? Digging a little deeper I find that this bunch of silly metallers, J.B.O, have been playing this game longer than I have been alive! So, I ask myself, why have I never heard them before? Well, the only thing for it is to strap myself in and blast off to ‘Planet Pink’ to see just how fun this metal can be…
For 33 years, and nearly as many albums, J.B.O have been rocking German crowds with their outlandish performances and parody metal tunes which places them pretty firmly in the list of “bands that are so dumb that Jonny Bakes will like them”. Yet somehow, they have escaped my attention until now but it’s better late than never to start right?
The album opens with the title track ‘Planet Pink’ which opens with a riff that will be instantly familiar to anyone who was a kid at the turning of the millennium because, and you’re not going to believe this, it’s a complete rehash of Eiffel 65’s ‘Blue’ but inexplicably everything is pink instead! Catching me completely off guard, it absolutely tickled me and got me excited for what else I was about to have thrown at me! Unfortunately, my German is a little rusty so I probably missed some of the ridiculousness but the mix of metal, Euro pop and… well… I’m not quite sure what, absolutely hit the spot for me. ‘Planet Pink’ pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the album which is chock full of ridiculous sounding tracks that rip the piss out of a howl host of stuff including unicorns, classical music, being in a band and a whole load more…
To pick out another standout track would have to be ‘Klassiker’ which pulls out short samples from the classical music vault to be metalised in this track. There’s ‘Ode To Joy’, ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ and Beethoven’s 5th all smashed together in this chaotic piece of music that is infuriatingly catchy! It starts to remind me of Nanowar of Steel, which is perhaps why I was hooked by this because again it’s outlandish music that can be enjoyed regardless of whether you can understand the music or not!
All in all, ‘Planet Pink’ was an absurd album and that’s exactly why I loved it! I’d say that J.B.O are the German counterpart to Nanowar of Steel, so if you’re already deep into the ridiculous world of parody metal then this is an album that deserves some attention. And if you’re even just a little bit curious about the rehashing of ‘Blue’ then it would be rude to pass up the opportunity to listen to this album! However, if you’re of the opinion that music should be serious then you should stay well clear of this album as the level of fun might just make your head explode!
- ‘Planet Pink’ is released on Friday (15 April). You can get your copy HERE.
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