So it seems Steel Panther are back, dropping “Balls Out” on “Cocktober 31st“. Sometimes a band will return and you ask “are they still relevant?”, that question isn’t particularly pertinent when it comes to Steel Panther because well, they never were relevant.
Happy at home on the Sunset Strip the surprise success of their sophomore album “Feel the Steel” in 2009 took them on a subsequent ascent with world tours with Motley Crue and Def Leppard which in turn has led their minds to even further strange and frightening places.
With yet more sanity testing song titles such as “Just Like Tiger Woods“, “It Won’t Suck Itself” and “Weenie Ride“ their “hotbox” album begins with a monologue declaring that it is now the year 6969, but soon enough we’re thrust back into the 80s with “Michael Starr“‘s trademark falsetto and Guns n Rosesesque chord progressions and solos from the equally sudonyminous “Satchel“, but of course not forgetting their unique and frankly bonkers lyricism.
17 Girls for example chronicles an evening in which Starr had intimate encounters with 17 women consecutively detailing the locations including a grocery store and a trailer park as well as detailing his unusual love making techniques. It’s all quite typical of them but anything else would have been a bit of a curveball, SP are a great time and that’s all they need to be.
“If I have sex with your best friend Melanie, don’t act like it’s some kind of felony“
There’s modern references to Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Call of Duty and Angry Birds which does mix up the feel a little but it’s still very much bygone era glam rock on the surface and, if you’ll excuse this phrase, Steel Panther’s special sauce under the surface and that’s what really matters.
17 Girls
