Turbonegro - 'Party Animals' (Burning Heart) Released 09/05/05

Signed to Norway’s Burning Heart records, the label made famous by The Hives brief assault on the UK charts 3 years ago, Turbonegro return to the fray with an album that’s as packed full of trashy Euro-glam as it is testosterone-fuelled rock and roll. With saggy gut, furry codpiece and sqiggly eye make-up to boot, hairy singer Hank von Helvete, it has to be said, looks absolutely ridiculous on a regular basis. And he knows it. Thing is, he doesn’t really give a shit, and it’s actually quite refreshing to find a frontman of a metal band who’s not a pretentious mother****er (I’m looking at you James Hetfield).

“My body is a temple! And tonight I’m gonna tear it down!” he crows in ‘Wasted Again’, a song whose main themes (you guessed it) include getting wasted, then getting wasted again. This is Turbonegro all over. They revisit all things depraved and evil, from shoplifting (‘High on the Crime’) to groupies (‘Blow Me Like the Wind’), that come with being in a rock and roll band, and go about it in the most unashamed fashion imaginable. The wailing solos, gritty riffs and cheesy lyrics come thick and fast but it is their wry self awareness that make this band instantly loveable. ‘Stay Free’ even sees them dabble in a dose of Freudian character analysis, with the rest of the band mercilessly taunting their idiot leader:

“Hey Hank! What’s up with the eyes? Is it just a disguise? Something you’re trying to hide, something deep inside?” That said, there’s nothing ground-breaking to be found on ‘Party Animals’, but this is simply not the point. What you will find is expressed quite neatly in the album’s title. It’s the sound of a band rocking out and having enormous fun into the bargain, regardless of the fact that they look like the punk-metal Village People fronted by the punk-metal Har Mar Superstar. The opening track contains a sample of Stephen Hawking inviting you to “enter the party zone”. Get in the zone, by all means…just don’t feed the animals.