CD-Review: Steel Panther - "All You Can Eat"

If you are into 80's Hair Metal, you can't ignore the American cock-Rockers of Steel Panther. In a very short time they've gained a huge fanbase and most of all this is due to their image. Steel Panther are the worst nightmare for feminists, intellectuals,believers and many more. Especially the latter won't be happy when they see the cover artwork to the new album "All You Can Eat". Steel Panther stands for Rock'n'Roll, drugs and sexism like no other band, so the concept is clear. The question is: will this work a third time or is the whole thing worn off?



I think everybody should already know that Steel Panther is a pure 80's Hair Metal parody. So please don't take them and their lyrics too serious. Also this time it's all about sex, drugs, tits, cocks, sperm, party and so on. That all is ridiculous, but it belongs to their image and some lyrics are very funny. Sometimes you just sit down and think "What the hell?!" So if you have a problem with such things - "All You Can Eat" won't make you happy like every Steel Panther album before.

But it would be superficial just to look at those guys and judge them by their outfits and their very special humor, because behind all that parody you'll discover four excellent musicians who really know how to write Hard Rock hits. Think of "Community Property", "Fat Girl", "Party All Day", "Just Like Tiger Woods" and many, many more - musically speaking those were excellent songs. 

So, what has the new album to offer? After the first listen I would say: more of the same. In my opinion too much of the same. But let's begin with the good things: "All You Can Eat" features again some first-class Hard rock hymns, for example the first single "Party Like Tomorrow Is The End Of The World", which became quickly one of my favorite Steel Panther songs ever. Another gem is "Gloryhole" - that one will make you move and it also offers a nice break in the middle of the song. Furthermore the stadium-rocker "Fucking My Heart In The Ass" and the two ballads "The Burden Of Being Wonderful" and "Bukkake Tears" are great examples for catchy 80's Rock. 

Sadly "All You Can Eat" has one major problem: after a few songs you feel like you would listen to the same song again and again. That means the melodies are repetitive on half of the tracks. Sometimes it feels like Steel Panther didn't had some new ideas to present. For example the opener "Pussywhipped" sounds so irrelevant to me. Also the rythm section sounds way the same on many tracks. For sure, every song on here rocks, but all in all the songwriting on previous albums was much better. To be honest after nine songs I was a bit bored and this is the worst thing that can happen to you while you are listening to a Steel Panther record, because all the parody, comedy and party-feeling no longer serve their purpose.

Productionswise it's all really good - like I said: it kicks ass. Speaking about the band members two performances are really outstanding and that is the strong vocal performance by Michael Starr and the virtuoso guitar-work from Satchel.

Yeah that was a short Review this time, but there is nothing more to say. I had big expectations on "All You Can Eat" and just half of the songs could fullfil them. I'm pretty sure, most tracks will work on stage very well, because Steel Panther are a fantastic live band, but the record itself sounds too repetetive. Steel Panther copy themselves again and again. This is still much fun at times, but it's far away from the class the previous records had. So I'm a bit disappointed, but nevertheless I can recommend this album to Hair Metal fanatics and all the Fanthers out there will buy it anyway. Solid stuff!

7/10

Tracklist:   

01. Pussywhipped
02. Party Like Tomorrow Is The End Of The World *
03. Gloryhole *
04. Bukkake Tears *
05. Gangbang At The Old Folks Home
06. Ten Strikes You're Out
07. The Burden Of Being Wonderful *
08. Fucking My Heart In The Ass *
09. B.V.S.
10. You're Beautiful When You Don't Talk
11. If I Was The King
12. She's On The Rag

* best tracks

http://steelpantherrocks.com