Wine Spirit
"Bombs Away"
(Perris Records) 

Wine Spirit are a power trio from Italy, consisting of singer/bassist El Guapo, singer/guitarist Il Conte, and drummer C.C. Nail. They play raw, aggressive, stripped to basics hard rock, and they do it really well. They are a talented band who really rock out, and are very influenced by 80's style hard rock and metal. "Bombs Away" is a good name for this album because it's a blast! It kicks off with three fast and furious rockers, "Off My Head" (sounds like L.A. Guns on speed!), "Voyager", and "Tail Gunner", which verges on being speed metal! Then things slow down a bit for the next couple of tunes. "R.A.W. Suite" is a slower-paced rocker, and the next song, "Freedom", is a spirited acoustic ballad. Things get rocking again after this, with "Wine Spirit" (How many bands have done this...name a song after themselves?), which is a cool tune with an attitude! The next two songs REALLY kick ass! There's "Short Hair Rocker", which is very Van Halen influenced, and "Orangut-Angus", an AC/DC meets Accept number. The title appears to be a nod to Angus Young. Then comes a more melodic rock tune, "Damned Clockstrokes (You'd Better Get Off)", where they use keyboards. Next up is "Wasted Sunsets", a power ballad with some good guitar soloing from Conte (he plays very well throughout the whole album). After this is a short, sweet little instrumental called "Bass-tard", which uses electronic drum programming, and features bass noodling from Guapo. And the album goes out with a bang with the appropriately titled "Proud To Be Loud", a scorching, kick ass rocker! These guys are a rocking band! There have been a lot of great bands coming out of Italy lately and Wine Spirit are the latest of them! This is hard rock the way it was meant to be! This band really captures the "spirit" of rock and roll!

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