The Swiss hard rock and heavy metal legends Krokus are about to come up with a new album titled ‘Big Rocks’ this 27th of January. Since 1975, Krokus has stood for “high- quality, honest-to-goodness, hand-made power rock” and continues the same in this album as well. But this album comprises only of covers, including a cover of a song of their own fourth album.
‘It is a homage, a nod to all those artists who paved the way for us, making it possible for us to do what we do,’ says bass player Chris von Rohr. The idea of such an album was in the heads of the band members since a long time and finally they are executing it.
Let’s just get down to the songs straightaway. The opening track is an instrumental rendition of the Sabbath classic “N.I.B”. The guitar harmonies in the middle portion sound eargasmic, but it would have been better if they did the complete song along with the vocals. Up next is Queen’s “Tie Your Mother Down” and Krokus adds a bit of NWOBHM flavour to it and Marc Storace’s vocals do sound a lot like Biff Clyford of Saxon in this one. The next track is a very punk-like version of “My Generation” originally by The Who. The drummer has done a notably magnificent job in this with the fluent rolls. The fourth song is a heavy metal tribute to the 1965 cover of “Wild Thing” by The Trogs. “House Of The Rising Sun”’s cover has already been released as a single for streaming and downloading platforms and it sounds raw and powerful despite keeping the soul of the original song unchanged.
The next two songs are also excellent covers of two classics by Neil Young and The Space Davies Group respectively. No rock and roll tribute album can be complete without Led Zeppelin and the eighth song takes that into account. The vocalist almost pulls off a perfect Robert Plant voice in this one and the heavy riffs go along very good with the song. Up next is a very different sounding “Summertime Blues” cover with a 80s old school hard rock feel. Krokus surely knows how to please a classic rock lover and hence did not leave out pulling of a great cover of “Born To Be Wild” in the album, followed by a Dylan and a Stones cover each. The final song is better recorded and mixed version of their own “Backseat Rock N’ Roll” which was released way back in 1980 in ‘Metal Rendez-Vous’ album.
The great thing about ‘Big Rocks’ is that the sound is full-on vintage power rock with a touch of blues and without any of the usual studio trickery of today. The band sounds raw and flawless and will be a trip down memory lane for lovers of the rock ‘n’ roll classics.