Music Review // Rascal Whack "Maliveni"

https://rascalwhack.bandcamp.com/album/maliveni //

What you will hopefully notice throughout the album "Maliveni" by Rascal Whack is how the sound is not quite rock n roll and not quite metal but somewhere between the two.  There is an easy way out of referring to this sound simply as "hard rock" but what that term can encompass just feels like too many possibilities.   A need for a more specific type of sound arises, but to dive into that makes the way one would put this into a genre much more difficult.

At times, there are those elements of Metallica especially how in certain songs Metallica can tow that line of metal- where they don't flat out blow the speakers but you know that metal is underlying because they're Metallica (This also tends to happen in their later years)  While a song like "Raging Groove" can be on the heavier side, it also has this slower guitar solo (which somewhat grooves) and begins to throw off my perception of what this album is and how it relates to metal/rock.

While I can hear a bit of Ozzy Osbourne in here (the solo stuff) I also think that Rascal Whack would be a perfect fit for Ozzfest because it's just that type of heavy energy they seem to look for in an artist.   Through guitar solos and a lot of guitar work in general, this album just also has the drive of a band such as Bullets and Octane.  "Slipping Away" begins with these big, crunchy guitar chords as well which make me think of the song "Higher Ground" and so some of that classic rock can come into play here as well.

Lyrics such as "They said you’re free to go / But they chained my feet" come out in the first song and throughout the entire album you can pick out your own lines and lyrics such as this.  Back in the early '00s there existed a band called U.P.O. who went around the country opening for Sevendust and Creed (You can find their album on Spotify) and that's one of the best comparisons I can make with Rascal Whack, though I'm not sure how many people out there have ever heard of U.P.O.   So the fact that the only artist I can really think to compare this with properly is one I have a personal connection with from twenty years ago just tells you how often a band like Rascal Whack comes along.