dimanche 25 Jan 2009, 2h46m

Hey kids! Are you tired of all of your bands having just one, boring lead singer? Well then I have I got a deal for you! Straight from Boston comes one of the craziest gimmicks of a band you've ever seen. Bang Camaro, a band with thirteen lead singers, has been making a lot of noise with a recent appearance on Conan and three songs in the highly successful Rock Band video game franchise. They're not just all singing though, Bang Camaro is doing it's damnedest to bring back catchy, party, arena rock. With that goal in mind, Bang Camaro drops the sequel to their self-titled debut, and it's you'd-never-guess title is Bang Camaro II.

As soon as "Blood Red Rock" kicks off the disc, you understand exactly what I'm saying when I say Bang Camaro lives for guitar solos and catchy choruses. "Blood Red Rock" certainly is not the best example of this, but if it's serving as a crash course to the world of this 17 piece band, then it does it's part well enough. The best examples of Bang Camaro's appeal lie in the next track "Night Lies" or others such as "She's Gone (Critical)" or "Miss Illusion". "Night Lies" demonstrates the concept of it's 13-man frontchoir at it's best, with each and every voice rising in unison to hit pitch perfect notes and create an exhillirating chorus, and song as a whole. It's hard enough for most bands to find one talented vocalist, but apparently Bang Camaro found a baker's dozen in Boston.

I'm sure this all sounds super great so far. Yes, what Bang Camaro promises, it does. There's plenty of excellent guitar work from Alex Necochea and Bryn Bennett, which makes the backing of most songs an absolute blast. But the novelty of the band tends to wear thin after a while. The first five songs are almost identical in nature, a standard verse and chorus structure with little to differentiate each song apart from slight variations of the guitar solos. Still, Bang Camaro begins to grate on you after so much repetition, and I have a feeling the band knows this. The latter half of the album is a much different experience, but not in a great way.

"I Know You Like My Band" is a simpler and shorter number which is unexciting in almost every way, and "Thunderclap" is just a straight up instrumental. That doesn't sound bad from a bad that specializes in guitar solos, but those solos just don't hold your attention for three minutes. "Can't Stop The Night" is a nice throwback to those five songs you listened to just 10 minutes ago, so it, of course, earns brownie points for being catchy and fun. Again though, the song doesn't have much else going for it. "The Hit" is a nice breaking of the mold, in that it's entirely acoustic. It's actually fantastic how good this band sounds when so stripped down, and makes me wish they would be more like that.

Bang Camaro is all fun and even more games. The more I listen to the album the less I'm inclined to compare them to arena rock acts and more like joke metal bands along the template of Tenacious D. The lyrics are so incredibly cheesy that it becomes abundantly clear that nothing the band writes is meant to be taken seriously, as demonstrated by the opening line from "The Hit". I wish I was joking when I said the line is "Some things don't catch on fire the way that we do. Who knew?" Of course, I am confident that this kind of lyrical lunacy is intentional and adds to Bang Camaro's happy-go-lucky atmosphere, but it's almost unbearable at points.

The Point - Bang Camaro is a lot of fun, and this album is likely to leave a hook or two in your ear. But gimmicks and solos aside, Bang Camaro II is a rather shallow affair filled with the same song six or seven times, with few, usually unsuccessful, variations. A lot of people, including myself, will enjoy this disc, but it's certainly not the pinnacle of rock music, and there's a lot of room for improvement in the writing and solos.

5 out of 10

Download This - "She's Gone (Critical)"
Bang Camaro
Bang Camaro II
She's Gone (Critical)