RUSHMOON – Kill Your Lovers …

Rushmoon is a German Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band that has kept it going since 1996, but they’ve had a steady line-up for the last six years. Their first full-length album surfaced in 2001 and was called Keep An Eye. Now they’ve released their second album, called Kill Your Lovers ….

Their music isn’t easy to label because the songs are so varied and different and there are even great variations within the songs themselves. Their style is best described as Technical/Groovy Heavy Metal … yeah that’s right; they just invented a new genre here. The tracks presented below are the highlights of the album:

”Hellcome” is the album opener and is a straight in-your-face Hard Rocker. Christian Binder owns this track with his distinct Hard Rock voice and shouts that they sound nothing like Britney Spears. And that is true; they’ve really got nothing in common! “Hellcome” is the most straightforward Hard Rocker on this album, and a worthy opener that promise a lot of good music for the next forty-four minutes of this CD.

“I’m Electric” starts with a cool guitar riff, some slap-hand bass play and some vocal lines that probably should have been rewritten. It’s not sour or anything, but it kind of sounds dissonant to the rest of the band. However, this changes after a short while. The lyrics Binder sings are often sentences that could have been straight out of a Monster Magnet song, for instance the line: “You wanna fuck me, but my ass is too tight, there is no way for you to get in!” In other words, the lyrics are raw, funny, and filled with Rock ‘N’ Roll spirit. The guitar solo is nice, and guitarist Dieter Weilert continues with some excellent tapping work while Binder sings the last part of the song.

“Tragedy” starts off heavy, but the verse is mostly bass-driven with Binder’s vocals on top. The chorus has a more Hard Rock impression than what the verse has, but there are elements from most genres here.

The bonus track on this album is “Blue Monday,” which is a cover from the 80s Disco dudes: New Order. It’s kind of cool when bands choose to cover something far away from their own genre. That gives the song a whole new approach, and that is just what Rushmoon has managed to do with this one. It’s a Hard Rock version with lots of rawness of a pure Disco song.

Kill Your Lovers … is not an album that’ll hit you right away; you need to spin this one a couple of times. There’s a lot of good stuff on this album, but it’s not quite “there” yet. There are lots of great riffs and sometimes you can get a flashback to early Monster Magnet, though Rushmoon’s music is a bit more optimistic at times. Kill Your Lovers … is a very promising album and hopefully the band will be picked up by a label sometime soon.

Rushmoon

Christian Binder – lead vocals
Alexander Steiger – rhythm guitar / backing vocals
Dieter Weilert – lead & rhythm guitar / backing vocals
Martin Keiditsch – bass
Volker Reitmeier – drums