Anything Worth Doing Is Worth OverDoing

Pretty Maids is a super fabulous, splendid little band from Denmark that has been kicking around the metal world for over a decade now. They have traded in their "established" sound quite a few times, to take on various incarnations of it, all of them distinctively Pretty Maids and uniquely metal. During their 15 plus years in the industry they have churned out a couple of discs that have achieved that classic status, "Future World", and the one before it, "Red Hot and Heavy" come to mind. Yet neither of these Pretty Maids sounds that were the trademarks for these albums, is the form that the band takes on the present day.

The band's current is a mixture of their hard rockin' "Scream" and "Spooked" sound, with an even rawer edge. No doubt about it, its hard, its heavy and for the most part, its catchy. It opens with a couple of hard rockers, "Snakes in Eden", and "Destination Paradise". "Face Me" is even better, the song is written and performed in a way that lets the anger and frustration just flow through the speakers. The herky jerky sound thrown in here and there really adds to that feel, as well as the lyrics "you piece of trash - you son of a bitch". Yeah..hm... I think someone is not too pleased here. Almost the entire cd follows along these lines But, as they have been known to do throughout the past decade, they toss in one or two really outstanding songs, that are pure AOR hard rock. As the most painful and delightful teaser of all, they toss in one of their best tunes EVER, "Hell On High Heels". It takes one back to the time when metal was on top and big pompous choruses and flowing melodies reigned supreme. Of course, the chorus in this song will stick in your mind for days, its so catchy and ultimately poppy, the way I want Pretty Maids to be. Now how about a whole album full of AOR hard rock-instant classics like this tune? I know they are capable of doing it, its just they don't seem to want to. And since this one song stands out so brilliantly among the rest, and is right up my alley... it effects the way I think of the other ten songs.

One tune doesn't make a whole album, so luckily they have included more than just that one song here of course. There are some pretty explosive tracks on this album. "When the Angels Cry" is a hard hitting song with a couple of nice time changes, some creeping, slow parts that make me envision a wasteland, and then it bursts open with some crunchy guitar, and a gigantic chorus thrown in to boot. The vocals of Ronnie Atkins sound incredible. Check out the spoken part near the end, its really spooky and adds great atmosphere to the song. "Only In America" is another of their takes on modern day life. I personally could use a few more love songs, and a few less social statement based songs. But I get my wish there too, with not one, but two ballads. The first is "With These Eyes", is a pretty ballad, starting out nice and slow with clanging acoustic, and then using the bridge into builing up to a rather nice chorus. The lyrics are thoughtful and sad, again delving into commenting on the present world we live in. "Loveshine" on the other hand, is a ballad that is up to the Pretty Maids standard, and comes off as being my second favorite song on the disc. The song is just filled with beautiful, plush sound. Keyboard fills in the missing pieces, and provides a light and melodic atmosphere. The chorus is one of their better ones, big and brilliant. This song is actually a very upbeat ballad, with a very clean guitar solo. The perfect ending to this disc.

Unfortunately they have a few tracks that just don't really do it for me. "Back Off" is a fast paced rocker, and overall a solid song, but doesnt really break any new ground. "Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing", the title track with the long name, is a decent song in all respect, but never really finds its place.. and sounds too similiar to the other songs on the album. "Scent of My Prey" is a step up, with some crunching really heavy metal guitar, that strays from the more melodic AOR rock, to a raw and less polished style. These hand full of songs are not bad, they just do not interest or excite me, I think its just the way they are presented, not enough flowing melody for my tastes. Its not the performance that suffers on these, but rather flaws in the song writing.

Overall this disc is most likely better than what I percieve it to be. With those two melodically outstanding tracks, "Loveshine" and the killer "Hell On High Heels", it makes the rest of the disc seem substandard. The rest of the songs "suffer" with their more mid90s kind of sound, its obvious that the guys were influenced some by modern day hard rock, and took a cue from them rather than doing an album strictly based upon bouncier, cleaner hard rock sounds. The album on its own is quite good, yet overall is not up to the past standards that they have set, which are practically sky high as it is now. I would definitely recommend this disc to fans of hard rock, and those that are pining away for a couple of good songs to take you back to the days when metal ruled the stadiums and the radio. Even with its few low points, this will definitely be a contender for one of the top 10 album of the year spots.

Overall. 8.5
by Alanna Evans
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