Motorjesus: Hellbreaker

Damn, these guys fucking love cars. A cursory glance through their discography all the way up to the new album Hellbreaker would certainly make that pretty damn obvious (cars, flames, and flaming cars galore!), but to be honest it's actually a pretty solid reflection of what you can expect from Motorjesus. Their entire aesthetic and mantra gives off a very midwestern U.S. "butt rock" vibe; from the tough guy vocal delivery to the biker/muscle car thing they have going on, it's all very "red state rock" (as I once heard William DuVall of Alice in Chains refer to it ever so eloquently). I absolutely detest and abhor that kind of stuff, but Motorjesus have a Teutonic sense of melody and a definite "metalness" that those bands all lack, so don't stop reading just yet.

Hellbreaker is for the most part a radio friendly hard rock album, played with enough aggression and grit to luckily separate themselves from the Five Finger Death Punches and Three Days Graces of the world. It's got plenty of the airwave hooks and blunt machismo you would expect from that kind of stuff, but the riffs and melodies are significantly more interesting and engaging than anything you'd hear on 101.6 "The Shotgun" or whatever have you. Dripping just enough Priest and Motorhead into their sound to make things interesting, songs like "Drive Through Fire" and "Lawgiver" deliver the goods with catchy choruses and harmonies.

While not particularly groundbreaking, I did find this album surprisingly engaging. A lesson to be learned in terms of not judging a book by it's cover, Motorjesus deliver a much better album with Hellbreaker than you would expect from an album that features cover art that looks like it belongs as the backdrop to a joint rock/biker festival in Oklahoma. The songwriting chops are here, and while all the talk of cars and hell (and cars in hell) can get old, it's a fun time.

Track Listing:
1. Drive Through Fire
2. Battlezone
3. Hellbreaker
4. Beyond the Grave
5. Dead Rising
6. Car Wars
7. Firebreather
8. Lawgiver
9. Black Hole Overload
10. Back to the Bullet
11. The Outrun

Added: April 14th 2021
Reviewer: Brandon Miles
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 707
Language: english

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