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A positive comeback.
Bad Sister trace their roots back to 1980 when the band was formed under the name Bogart Joint. There followed a period of intense gigging. In 1988 the band changed their name to Bad Sister. The band released their first album, "Heartbreaker", in 1989. This was followed in 1991 with "Out Of The Business". In 1993 Suzie Lohmar replaced original singer Petra. In 1996 the band split up. In 2002 following a good reaction to their website, Point Music re-released "Heartbreaker". This led to a live CD in 2003, Suzie Lohmar re-joining in 2007 and this new studio release at the start of this summer.
The album kicks of with a very familiar guitar riff (Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane) on "Surrender" which is a good Rainbow inspired start to the album. The weak male vocals on the second track, "Zero Zone", don't help this track which maybe tries too hard to rock out and ends up sounding like filler. Suzie is back in charge on "Take Me As I Am" to get the band back on track. This track and the following lighter track, "Unless You Talk To Me", both evoke memories of Heart. "Carry On" is a piano led ballad that actually reminds me of ABBA when the vocal harmonies kick in. "Rocky Road" and a later track, "Hard Times Shuffle", bring a Rainbow/Purple edge to the music, giving a muscular, less melodic, approach. In between these two is the parping keyboards of "Heat Of The Night" which vies with the opening track as the catchiest on offer. "Don't Love Me Again" has the band taking a more successful stab a ballad, this time of the power variety. Melodic Hard Rock is on display on the next couple of tracks "Through The Night" and "Blackmailed", with the guitar work on "Blackmailed" being particularly effective. Former vocalists Petra Degelow takes over vocal duties for the Bon Jovi "Runaway" influenced "Talk To Me Later". For a band that seem to favour uptempo rock tracks for the most part, it seems strange that they close with an 'uplugged' track called "Last Train", which does show the variety of style the band offer, but it doesn't quite seem to have the edge required to make this sort of finale work.
The album is well produced and although the standard of a couple of tracks drops below the others, the overall result is a good album which is bonus for all fans of 80s style AOR/Melodic Hard Rock.
