Crazy Lixx: Riot Avenue (Frontiers)

Crazy Lixx, one of the best new bands in the Swedish sleaze rock scene, released their third full-length album in 2012. The follow-up to their breakthrough 2010 album New Religion was titled Riot Avenue, and once again the band has found the perfect balance between ’80s Hollywood hair metal sound and bombastic Swedish style melodic rock.

This time around, the band tilts a little further into hair metal territory. There’s still a shot of Treat, Def Leppard and White Lion in the band’s sound, but there’s even more L.A. Guns and Bang Tango. It’s a fun mix, and one that relies heavily on super-catchy melodies, huge guitar hooks, lots of vocal harmonies and choruses you can immediately sing along to. The guitar work on Riot Avenue is very flashy, and the vocals are strong too. The album starts off with a bang, and between “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” “Young Blood” and the title track, there’s barely a chance to catch your breath. Honestly, aside from the closing ballad “Only the Dead Know,” Riot Avenue is all party, all the time.

It doesn’t have quite the same immediate impact that New Religion had (that has to be one of the best albums in that whole scene), but Riot Avenue is still a wickedly fun blast of melodic sleaze rock. If you’re a fan of bands like Hardcore Superstar, Crashdiet, Reckless Love and the rest of the Swedish sleaze rock scene, you won’t want to miss this one!

Reissue Notes: Frontiers reissued Riot Avenue (along with Loud Minority and New Religion) this year. They added four bonus tracks for good measure, including territory-exclusive studio tracks and previously unreleased unplugged versions. There’s just enough bonus material to justify an upgrade if you already had the original version.