Midnight Sin: Sex First

The online buzz surrounding Italian's Midnight Sin, has in 80s rock circles, grown to something of a din in recent months, so being a child (well, ok, teen) of that time, I was seduced into finding what all the fuss has been about – and you know what? I'm not really all that sure I've found out.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting Midnight Sin don't know their way around a slice of down and dirty Vain, of smash of Guns n' Roses attitude, but there are countless acts out there once more gyrating their hips and curling their lips to this hard rock meets sleaze sound and a fair few of them doing so with more conviction than can be found here. Think Reckless Love or Crazy Lixx and you'll be in the right ballpark, while Steel Panther have also been bandied about as a comparison, but how many parody acts (no matter how talented) do we really need? The stage names are all in place, LeStar rubbing shoulders with Acey Guns and Dany Rake (and Albert Fish, eh?) and so is the suitably crass cover sleeve and title, Sex First, and yet while there is only one real clunker on this album – the slow and utterly awful "You Piss Me Off" (listening to this track five or six times made the song live up to its name) – I've really struggled in trying to make any of "No Matter", "Midnight Revolution", or "Code: 69" (I wonder what that might be about...) stick in the mind.

All five silly named chaps can play and there's no denying that Sex First contains a pile of hummable choruses and attention snagging hooks and yet the immediacy of it all sees the effect ware thin far too quickly.

Some may call me a killjoy and proclaim that this sort of stuff is meant to be throwaway fun – and to a large extent that's true. However can I see myself listening to the simple but effective "'Till It's All Gone Away", or admittedly power packed "Rise And Yell" in thirty years, in the same way as I do say Skid Row, Winger or Slaughter? Or indeed even in a couple of years, as with Vega, W.E.T., or H.e.a.t? I very much doubt it. For some that criteria may still equal a modern masterpiece, but not for me I'm afraid...

Track Listing
1. Snake Eyes
2. Midnight Revolution
3. Feed Me With Lies
4. No Matter
5. 'Till It's All Gone Away
6. You Piss Me Off
7. Rise & Yell
8. Code: 69
9. 2 Words
10. Sweet Pain

Added: October 22nd 2014
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Midnight Sin on facebook
Hits: 1739
Language: english

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