Bullet
Bite The Bullet

October 2008
Released: 2008, Black Lodge/Sound Pollution
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewer: Anders Sandvall

This album was supposed to come out in the stores before the summer but for some reason it hasn’t been released until now. The band comes from Sweden and BITE THE BULLET is their second album. Since the debut HEADING FOR THE TOP came out bass player Lenny Blade has left the band and as a replacement they have hired their friend and roadie as well as the founder of their fan club, Adam Hector. The debut album wasn’t anything but a celebration to the legends and icons from the 70’s and early 80’s hardrock and metal scene. Bullet’s music has a lot in common with AC/DC, Accept and Judas Priest and singer Hell Hofer sounds an awful lot like Brian Johnson and Udo. The debut was a little rough around the edges and my main concern with this release was if the band was going to repeat the concept from before and yes, after a few rounds in my CD player, I realize that this is the same as before.



The only difference from before is that the song writing squad has refined and sharpened up the songs as well as the music sounds a little more mature. The main influences are still Judas Priest, AC/DC and Accept, which is fine. They are all ground breaking and legendary bands but it’s getting a little boring to listen to pretty much the same concept again.



The musicians do a great job performing 80’s heavy metal and the songs includes various amounts of twin guitar duels. The songs haven’t lost their catchiness and many of them stick in your brain from the first time you hear them. It is quite nerve-wracking to have to listen to Hofer’s unvaried and screamy voice through 11 songs. That man hasn’t got much of a vocal range, in fact he has none.That’s OK if you’re into AC/DC or Motörhead but for a semi-known band from a small town in Sweden it’s not OK.



It was maybe fun to listen to Bullet on the debut album but I’m sorry to say they did a huge mistake trying to repeat that concept again.. It’s an OK album with a few stronger songs. Killer tracks are “Bite The Bullet”, “Dusk Til ´Dawn”, “Rock’n’roll Remedy” and “Rock Us Tonight”. The Accept and Judas Priest influences shine through tremendously in those songs and those are the only songs where Hofer’s voice actually works pretty well. If you liked the debut you might like BITE THE BULLET but the big question is do we really need another AC/DC, Accept, Judas Priest cover act? Where does the band go from here? They can’t do the same thing on the next disc.



http://www.myspace.com/bulletsweden

http://www.soundpollution.se