Paulblow's Full Review: Metal Queen Hijack by RPLA
Once in a while in life you get lucky. I got lucky when I received this great rock CD, "Metal Queen Hijack"...
I had never heard of this band, RPLA, until one of my old roommates gave me this CD. He bought it for me at a used record store only because the bands' name is similar to a band I used to play in (RPA)... As it turns out, the band has much more than just a cool name -in fact, I loved this CD from the first listen...
RPLA play straight ahead, hard rocking butt rock with a touch of the ol' glam, with all the best elements from these genres: loud, sizzling Marshall-driven power chords, loud no-frills hard rock beats - and party songs that are packed full of power, melody, and cool, cool riffs. The music reminds me of a cross between RATT, AC/DC, and the Cult, and the singer (James Maker) sounds almost identical to Ian Astbury (singer for the Cult). This album actually sounds very much like the Cult's "Sonic Temple", but with much better songs! I played this CD for a girl friend of mine without telling her who it was, and she swore that it WAS the Cult. Maker can really sing, and this band has the hard rock sound down just right...
The songs on this CD are pretty much all straight ahead '80's inspired rockers, but with a '90's edge - "Metal Queen Hijack", "Absolute Queen of Pop", "Unatural Woman", "U.K. Rock City", and "Last Night a Drag Queen Saved Your Life" are the highlights, and they sound just as cool as the song titles. These guys have TALENT, and a real flair for writing infectious hard rock songs! The great song writing is backed up by some awesome musicianship - The guitars (played by Peter Kinski) are rocking, with some excellent, sweet leads floating in and out all over the songs (much like RATT's Warren Dimartini used to do). The CD also contains a couple of power ballads, "Something to Live and Breathe By", and "Hold Back the Storm", which are much better than your typical power ballads (which I never particularily cared for, but RPLA manage to pull them off quite nicely.) The CD as a whole makes for some great hard rock lsitening- the kind of music you can really party down with - in fact, this is the CD I put on when I have friends over to do a little drinkin' and par-tay-ing.
This CD was released in 1994, and apparently they never released a follow up album. Perhaps the CD did not sell, and they were dropped from their label - who knows. The band seems to have vanished, which is really too bad because they were actually GOOD! It's not very often that I hear a band that plays the type of music I really love to hear, and judging from this one CD I'd say that RPLA were much better than all the grungy bands that were coming out in 1994. Perhaps that's what killed them off - they dared to play party glam hard rock in the age of flannel.
I'm just happy to own this fine CD, and I must say it has become one of my top 10 CDs. If you are a fan of loud guitar rock, ala AC/DC, the Cult, RATT, etc., you'd probably like this one. Check it out- that is, if you can find it anywhere...
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