Crime Pays

I had read a lot of positive reviews and reports about Thunderhead, before I bought “Crime Pays”. But the internet had not been invented yet and therefore I had not many chances to listen to one or two tracks in advance. At the end, it was a wrong decision to buy the album from my point of view. Thunderhead play a pretty generic and quite North-American form of heavy metal. It consists of a few up-tempo rockers (for example “Torture Ride”), a lot of mid-paced stuff and a semi-ballad (“Life Is Only a Good-Bye”). The quartet focuses on the hard rock / metal mainstream and (in an act of hybris) on the American market. But how authentic is it to sing “N.Y. You Let Me Down” as long as the band is located in sleepy Hannover, Germany?

“Crime Pays” is enhanced by its down-to-earth and crispy production. I think this no frills mix fits the style Thunderhead play very well. Additionally, the single components are well balanced and so the band was surely happy about the technical implementation of the material. But the songs themselves… well, do you know the feeling of having a stress-free yet somehow uninteresting day? Thunderhead’s album from 1996 marks the sonic equivalent to such a day. Already the bloodless, faceless and joyless opener leaves nothing but a medium-sized hole and the following “Make it Hard” wallows lyrically in hackneyed rock clichés, while the melodic line remains below average and does not evoke any emotion. The track about N.Y. starts pretty cool with a guitar that makes me think of typical first tones of a W.A.S.P. track. Unfortunately, at the end, it is nothing but a run of the mill song with an acceptable chorus. The one of the title track is mega-catchy and basically okay, but the verses spread such an intense “Night Prowler” feeling, that I cannot see a very individual touch here. Thunderhead want to be a bit bluesy, they seem to aim on an alcohol-imbued and cigarettes-clouded atmosphere and they have no other ambition than walking some well known paths in the best possible manner. Unfortunately, nothing really works. Even the song with the most promising start, “Let the Dogs Loose” is nothing more than an acceptable number at the interface of metal and rock.

Ted Bullet is a talented singer with a vigorous voice and his technically skilful comrades surely manage their instrumental parts without problems. Yet nothing can make up for vapid compositions. One finds an album in the discography of Krokus which spreads more or less the same vibrations as the here reviewed work. But “Stampede” shines with a way better song-writing. Thunderhead don't have any gripping riffs, instead they play halfway lively, but ultimately just ordinary rock music. Maybe these songs worked live on stage with an additional dose of power and enthusiasm, but in the studio versions that “Crime Pays” shows, I am not able to enjoy them.