Bobaflex
Hell In My Heart

May 2013
Released: 2013, Megaforce Records
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Metal-Rules.com UK Team

‘Bury Me With My Guns’ sounds very much like the sort of sentiment the McCoy brothers’ ancestors would have been keen on. In a little piece of quaint American history these McCoy’s are the descendents of the infamously feuding Hatfield-McCoys, but over a century on they’re picking up six-strings as opposed to six-shooters. Much to the relief of their audience I’m sure.



Formed at the tail-end of the 90s, these guys have been strapping on their guitars for some time now, but recent years have perhaps seen them fix them a little tighter as they’ve endured various line-up changes, and the bankruptcy of their former label. Nothing like hardship for a bit of motivation though, as Bobaflex have found with their latest album Hell In My Heart.



At 15-studio tracks, and one live, long it could do with a little trimming along the edges, but for the main it’s a right full-tilt little number. There’s a reason so many modern hard-rock bands keep popping up, it’s not the musical equivalent of brain-surgery taking place in a rocket, but by and large it’s infuriatingly catchy. There’s also some air of ‘cool’ to that strutting speeding groove - you it’s dumb but you get a touch more air at your heels when listening to it.



Whilst ‘Low-Life’ is off shaking its booty, ‘Chemical Valley’ could be a heavier Motley-Crue cut or a page out of Avenged Sevenfold’s book, and the aforementioned ‘Bury With My Guns’ may be over-ambitious in its quest to ‘shoot the devil right between the eyes’ but it speaks with the confident swagger of one that can handle itself should a bar-room brawl break out. The switch-and-share approach to the lead vocals is a bit of a Bobaflex-trait but it works for them, as does the several-part harmonies that frequently populate.



A little left-field, but all the better for its unexpectedness, is the cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Sound Of Silence’. You couldn’t pick it as a Bobaflex song, and yet it comes across beautifully and makes all that I’ve been saying about them and the sameness of modern hard-rock sound a bit bollocks. By all means you may give them an amused sideways glance, but don’t make the error of assuming Bobaflex are playing about - as I said those six-strings are loaded.



Review by Kirsty Birkett-Stubbs