If you like your Rock 'n' Roll dirty and Punky, this is a band that's well worth checking out.
Although they've been floating around since 2004, Phoenix Punk pistols White Demons haven't set the world on fire – at best they've let off a firework or two in their own back yard. Their 2006 debut was praised by none other than Kim Fowley, but it's still taken eleven years for the band to pull their collective finger out of their collective butt and release a follow-up.
White Demons don't make complicated music, and once you've heard a couple of tracks it's obvious whether you're going to like the rest of the album. The guitars are low slung, the vocals throaty and the attitude is one of a resounding "fuck You" to anyone who cares.
What we have within 'Bleed It Out' is a whole lot of Rawk and Roll with a hard seventies Punk edge. This is nothing that hasn't been done before, but as the opening guitar lick to 'Clot When I Bleed' leaps from the speakers, you know you're in for a good time. Nick Kokoros provides the sweet licks throughout, as well as the rusty but effective vocals; whilst his guitar work is more effective, he does a decent job on the mic as well. After nine tracks of in-your-face Punk 'n' Roll, the band close with a short, effective, acoustic track, 'Don't Wanna Be Damned' (with a decent mystery female guest vocalist), and it's nice to see they have another side to them.
I was quite prepared to pour scorn on White Demons, like Homer Simpson pouring gravy on his ice cream (mmmmm... gravy and ice cream), but it's very hard to dislike an album that has so much energy and attitude tied together with good songs. The most important thing is that it made me smile and sing along from the first play-through, and if you like your Rock 'n' Roll dirty and Punky, this is a band that's well worth checking out.
Alan Holloway