By Jonny Bakes
Remember when rock music was all about hedonism and the three Bs (Booze, Babes and… erm… something else beginning with B) but now that times have changed a little bit you find yourself longing for those days? Well, don’t worry because there’s still plenty of bands out there that are so saturated with Jack Daniel’s and hairspray that you really shouldn’t smoke near them! It seems to me that the Australian project Kiss The Vyper is another entry into that increasing list, so I decided to take a dive into the sophomore release, ‘Hope You Like It’. Let’s see if I do…
Kiss The Vyper is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist and all round musical talent, Bobby Miler, and is his main outlet for being able to combine his two greatest loves of melodic rock and the sheer sleaze of the ’80s. Something that he mashes together with great effect, I must add! ‘Hope You Like It’ follows the very well received debut album ‘Keep the Fire Burning’ which dropped in 2016 (and seems like a lifetime ago!) and represents a real step change in songwriting and production, or so we’re told,which sounds like I’m in for a real treat!
Overall, this album achieves everything it set out to do by combining the sound of melodic stadium rock bands like Journey and Whitesnake and blending that with the sleaze of Motley Crüe and Poison. The result is an album that’s chock full of seriously catchy songs that would be completely at home in a Californian dive bar making the perfect soundtrack to your wild Saturday nights! The album covers all the flavours of sleazy stadium rock with the obligatory ballads thrown in for good measure as well to make sure you get a good amount of variety too. To top it all off, Bobby’s vocals perfectly capture the whiskey soaked hedonism that formed the integral part of the sleaze rock scene; it’s almost as if he’s just dropped straight out of the ’80s.
The album opens with the title track ‘Hope You Like It’ which is a real statement of intent and I can safely say that by the end of this track I was pretty sure that I did, indeed, like it. It instantly hits you with a cry of “hope you like it” which instantly evokes memories of Motley Crüe and ends up being an incredibly catchy number that really makes you groove! The guitar work is filthy and fuzzy with plenty of wankery to drive home that “ladies fucking love me” attitude which is an absolute necessity in this genre. The chorus is simple and memorable so you’ll quickly find yourself singing along before you even realise it’s happening which makes it perfect for a stadium anthem too!
While all of the tracks are memorable on this album (seriously, they’re all catchy as the clap) another stand out track for me was the filthily named ‘Sweet Sticky Sex’. Opening with the line “come on take a seat, your casting couch awaits” that is so in your face that it becomes pretty Steel Panther-esque, I knew that it was going to tick all my boxes. Again, the chorus is simple, repeatable and full of rhyming couplets that makes it great to sing along to!
So, the overarching ethos of this album is ‘Hope You Like It’ and I sure as hell did! If you still want your albums to sound like scantily clad women being doused in Jack Daniels and grinding on blokes in leather pants, then you need to get yourself a healthy dose of Kiss The Vyper. Something here for anyone who longs to be back in the ’80s, is looking for something fresh yet retro and catchy or fans of any of the bands I’ve already mentioned in this review. It’s a big win for me, and I definitely have a few mates in mind who will find links to this album winging its way to their inboxes…
- ‘Hope You Like It’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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