The last couple of years really has seen the rise of the super group. For the fans it normally starts with a lot of excitement that some members of some of your favourite bands are coming together to create what will surely be the greatest thing you ever hear! Then it normally all falls apart into a huge let down. I mean come on we all thought Audioslave was going to be the best! It was the singer of Soundgarden getting together with Rage Against The Machine. Their first single even got us excited. ‘Cochise’ was a bad ass tune but the rest was just…. pfffft. Dare we say boring? Yes we do. Well here we have another super-group featuring members of bands like Mr Big, Dream Theater, Poison and more but how will this band, going under the name The Winery Dogs compare to their former bands on new album Hot Streak? To be honest, not too bad at all.
What we have here, starting with opener ‘Oblivion’, is a record made up of fist in the air, giant chorus, stadium rock. It’s an album that at times touches on the cheese but for the most part is great fun. ‘Captain Love’ sounds like AC/DC fronted by Chris Cornell, the entirety of this record is true classic rock and it does that very well. At no point does it pretend to be anything else and that alone give Hot Streak a certain charm.
There is something that any listener will take away from this album, they certainly know how to play their instruments and how to write a huge chorus. Also something that an album like this need is a ballad and this has a haunting one with track ‘Fire’. The acoustics are busted out, as are the harmonies, it filters an almost Spanish feel in some of the guitar work but all in all is a near perfect rock ballad. The exact right amount of cheese.
Ballads are not the order of the day here though as ‘Ghost Town’ brings the band back on track to arena rock and ‘The Bridge’ shows itself as a stand out track with some blistering riff work. ‘Devil You Know’ is another stand out and track ‘Think It Over’ pulls in some lounge sleaze.
All in all The Winery Dogs have brought together a perfect sophmore album for their fans. There have been no big changes from their debut and they have delivered a band that will keep their fanbase whole. Yes this is, at times a rather cheesy album but you know that this is exactly what the bands fans want to hear. They don’t claim to be a socio-political band fighting the system. This is arena rock, this is exactly what it is and done very well and to that you must salute them on a job very well done.
