If you knew nothing of Audrey Horne’s backstory, you could easily imagine Pure Heavy forming the backbone of a killer Monsters Of Rock festival set circa 1984-5.
Even those on board for 2011’s Youngblood will be surprised at the quintet’s development here. Where Youngblood mined the 70s for inspiration, Pure Heavy has its heart, soul and twin harmony riffs rooted in the 1980s. Holy Roller is pure Van Halen (with an arpeggiated Scorpions mid-section), Out Of The City mimics Thin Lizzy much less self-consciously than Black Star Riders have ever done and Tales From The Crypt – which features the sound of a beer can fizzing open mid-song – could be Y&T or even early Def Leppard, with its glam-influenced stomp and ‘party hard’ ethos. All this could equate to Steel Panther minus the dick jokes, if Pure Heavy were not so obviously a genuine labour of love for all involved: the likes of Waiting For The Night and the rampaging Into The Wild (surely an outtake from Van Halen’s Fair Warning?) already sound like jukebox classics, and only the most cynical soul could fail to be stirred. Glorious.
Via Napalm
