Arts & Entertainment
 

Hair metal returns at last

Darkness ushers back fresh guitar, falsetto wails with new album

By Bridget Brown
The Daily Cougar

By now you've probably heard it. Some brave soul may have played it on a juke box in a bar, or you may have caught it during its major rotation on MTV or on any modern rock radio station. There's no denying it -- the chorus sticks like day-old gum in your brain. It's so different, yet so familiar. It's not something this decade is made of. 

The singer's throwback, falsetto voice raises as he shrieks, "I believe in a thing called love / just listen to the rhythm of my heart." Chances are The Darkness either have you shaking your head and covering your pulsating ear drums, laughing your head off or kicking back and waiting for the next wave of rock to be ushered in.

The latter is the better choice. In a time when the band with the least talent and the lamest problems to whine about win the most airtime, The Darkness' Permission to Land is a brimming over with interesting lyrics, face melting guitar solos … oh yeah, and there's the vocals -- we'll get to that later.

The album starts with "Black Shuck." Picking this song to lead the album could turn off potential fans. Maybe it was a way for the band to weed out those that don't know how to rock, or maybe with the Dio-esque fantasy song is more of a way to prepare listeners for what is to come. Somehow The Darkness manages to extract what little good came out of one-hit wonder 1980s hair metal bands and turn it into something fresh and fun.

"Get Your Hands Off My Women" is the biggest vocal achievement on the album. Vocalist Justin Hakins tries to hit the highs like Queen's Freddy Mercury, and there's no denying that's a hard task. Most female vocalists would find trouble hitting that range so consistently. And there's very little screaming involved, just a whole lot of wailing.

Even the songs that come across as corny, like "Live on the Rocks With No Ice," still hold their own because of carefully crafted guitar riffs. The Darkness also knows how to take it down a notch, like on the melodic "Friday Night."

Skeptics may wonder why anyone would want to revive hair metal. It's true the genre was pretty stupid the first time around -- unless you enjoy seeing skinny guys jumping off speakers in spandex jumpsuits. But the musicianship and the vocals set The Darkness leagues away from the ho-hum bands filling up the airwaves these days. Besides, there have been a lot of dumb fads. Does anyone remember POGs?

The Darkness

Permission to Land

Atlantic Records

The verdict: Permission to rock.

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