Band:	Raunchy
Album:	Death Pop Romance
Style:	Alternative metal, Melodic death metal, Industrial metal
Release date:	2006

01. This Legend Forever
02. Abandon Your Hope
03. Phantoms
04. The Curse Of Bravery
05. Remembrance
06. Live The Myth
07. City Of Hurt
08. Persistence
09. The Velvet Remains
10. Farewell To Devotion

Don't run away please. Despite the punk-sounding band name and the angry teen album title, Raunchy have nothing to do with either mellow punk bands or angry teens. They actually play this very rare (insert sarcasm) genre known as Gothenburg Metal. Formerly signed on Nuclear Blast, for which they already released two albums, they've recently switched to Lifeforce Records to release Death Pop Romance. So what can I say? I don't really know what to think of this album.

On the one hand, this is one of the most catchy, best written, most addictive albums I've heard for a very long time. I didn't like it very much at first, it all sounded quite bland and uninteresting but it progressively grew on me, so much that I listen to it at least once a day now. The music is quite alright but nothing too outstanding, just some rather classical thrashy Gothenburg metal with a very modern, smooth and clean production. The sound is comparable to R2R or Natural Born Chaos for example. The keyboards play a major role in accompanying the thrashy guitar tunes. But the most important feature of Raunchy, the one that bears the weight of the rest of the album, is the vocals: The new singer Kasper Thomsen is excellent (despite his tendency to get a bit whiney sometimes). He's got a knack for finding the adequate tone for every passage. This said, the choruses are absolutely amazing. There's not a single song that misses its catchy moment that's going to hook the listener up. This is probably, as I told you already, one of the best written albums I've listened to in the past decade.

Yes, but on the other hand, this is a total rip-off of the rest of the Gothenburg scene, especially Soilwork. It doesn't matter that bands are influenced by other, older bands, unless the influences are so obvious that you can't distinguish between the original and the copy anymore. The problem with Raunchy is that there is not a single moment that sounds like something that has not been done before. I hate having this impression when I listen to an album that I've already heard this passage on another album. I was listening to "Remembrance" and thought it was a cool song until? hey, but that melodic guitar line is exactly the same as the main riff of Dark Tranquillity's "The Treason Wall"! You see what I mean? You always get that rip-off passage that ruins an otherwise excellent song.The vocalist is good as I said above, but he's a clone of Speed Strid. The keyboards, the riffs, everything sounds like Soilwork and co. The only thing I can say for Raunchy is that their music is more catchy and a tad more complex than Soilwork's.

So in the end I don't know what to think of this album. Am I going to like it because it so catchy and addictive, because it is 100x better and heavier than the last Soilwork? Or will I hate it because it reeks of the undisguised commercial product? I don't judge the band's honesty, but this is so non-personal that it's a bit 'too much'. Since I am a weak person I think I'll go with the first solution (this is too catchy for me to hate it). Now you people, if you want something easy, accessible, that won't make you think, get Raunchy. If you're searching for a bit of originality or even for something sincere, run away.

Highlights: This Legend Forever, Phantoms, The Curse Of Bravery, The Velvet Remains