VICE – ‘Three Fingers Up’ (Lictoc Music/Pride & Joy Music)

By Jonny Bakes

Sometimes I get drawn in by a band’s description, and today is one of those occasions with this album of “Bavarian Party Metal”. Having been to Oktoberfest in Munich, which could arguably be described as the biggest Bavarian Party, I was instantly intrigued as to what this could entail. Will we see a fusion of Bavarian Oompah and metal or will this be Germany’s answer to Municipal Waste? Let’s take a look…

If you have never heard of VICE it could be that you missed them when they had their first stint in the limelight in the late 80s with a pair of successful albums that both sold over 100,000 copies thanks to some relentless touring and plenty of media appearances. But then things went quiet for a solid 27 year hiatus before returning with a new lineup and releasing their third album, ‘Veni, Vidi, Vice’ in 2017. Two years later, VICE are back again with their next offering, ‘3 Fingers Up’.

The album cover art is pretty simple, and offers no illusions as to the kind of lyrical content you can expect to hear… A cartoon hand with three fingers up (see what they did there?) in the shape of The Shocker. If you don’t already know what that is, check out the song by Steel Panther them come back to this… err… enlightened?

So, fairly juvenile lyrics are the order of the day here but what about the sound? Do VICE successfully capture the essence of Bavarian partying? Now that I’m not so sure about. It would appear that VICE formed at the tail end of the golden age of hair metal and are still in that same mindset in their new incarnation. So expect to hear something that sounds a little bit like Motley Crüe or Bon Jovi but think more along the lines of their easier listening songs. Not every track followed this rule however, there are a couple of harder hitting songs there, but for the most part the album comes across as fairly generic 80s hair metal.

The album opens with ‘Shitty Situation’ which is a pretty heavy number that gives plenty of promise for the rest of the album. I felt that this sounds a little out of place with other songs on the album, as it sounds more like a Disturbed track that someone mixed with some 80’s “woah-oh” backing vocals.

Next stand out song for me is the delightfully named “Fuck U” which is a punkier sounding number with some fitting angsty sounding lyrics. “Fuck you I hate you… Fuck you I love you” are the familiar words of teenage guys everywhere who can’t quite get over that one girlfriend. Prominent basslines and simple chord progressions complete the punk feel here leading to a respectable offering. This flows nicely into the next track, which is pretty true-to-the-original cover of Joan Jett’s ‘Hate Myself For Loving You”.

Title track ‘3 Fingers’ sounds like it was written to become a stadium anthem. It has a simple chorus that should be easy enough for any crowd to get the hang of, plenty of woah-oh’s too for those who can’t quite master the lyrics. And if that wasn’t enough, it has a vocal solo breakdown of the chorus accompanied by clapping. I would be astounded of this doesn’t feature prominently in VICE’s love setlist!

So overall, if your room still has Motley Crüe posters up, and you like your music to be accompanied with a faint whiff of hairspray then this album could very much be up your street. But for me this is unlikely to enter my list of most played albums of 2019 as I feel it just didn’t do enough to really catch my attention, or maybe I just had inflated expectations of Bavarian Party Metal?

‘Three Fingers Up’ is released on 13 September. You can get your copy HERE.

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