Chrome Division reviewed
Chrome Division
Booze, Broads And Beelzebub
(Nuclear Blast)
If anyone in heavy metal deserves to kick back and have a good time, it’s Chrome Division guitarist Shagrath. His full-time job fronting Dimmu Borgir, after all, demands he be dead serious all the time about Satan, pentagrams, corpsepaint, The Lord Of The Rings, and hating your Christ. So Chrome Division, his nasty hard rock side project, is undoubtedly good for him. But for us?
Chrome Division and its whole boozing, womanizing, bikers-at-the-strip-club persona is probably supposed to be funny and a lot of chuckles for everybody. But listening to Booze, Broads And Beelzebub (the band’s second full-length) tells us the band members are the only ones in on the joke. Like we said, we don’t blame Mr. Serious Pants Shagrath for wanting to have a bit of fun, but is it too much to ask for a little originality, too? Motorhead have a much better Lemmy than Chrome Division’s Eddie Guz, and fellow Norwegians Turbonegro have far cleverer jokes than “The Devil Walks Proud” (“I can’t remember names and faces, or places that I’ve been/The girl in my bed is far from the prettiest I’ve ever seen”) and the title track (“Come on over/We’ve got something that won’t make you sober”).
Booze, Broads And Beelzebub isn’t without its moments – the catchy chorus of “Raven Black Cadillac” and the sleazy remake of ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man” – but for each decent moment there’s way too many like “Wine Of Sin,” where Guz Chrome Division actually sings “show me your tits.” Later it’s turned into a gang vocal.
Again, we’re sure it was supposed to be funny.
— Trevor Fisher
