Biker music. Beer belly music. Those are the associations I get when listening to South African Dead Lucky. Is that positive? Not really, no, admittedly, it isn't.

I'm aware that I'm generalising and being terribly prejudiced, but, hey, I don't care - that's my prerogative on this site. For me, this is music that fits in nicely in a pub or biker hang-out, and I don't frequent places like that. To be fair to the music of these young South African fellows, they deliver their heavy rock'n'roll with a decent portion of energy, and they play it well. The best example of their ability to deliver excellent grooves are King of the Underworld and Our Prayer. By the look of him in the pictures, singer Kyle is in his, errr, mid to late 20s perhaps? He sounds like a late 40s, beerladen biker type, though. That's not a compliment.

So, despite a good energy and some ability to create a groove, 'Sons of Lazarus' suffers from a voice that for me doesn't sound inspring at all and the fact that the quality of songs isn't consistent across the entire album. Not a bad debut album as such, but not one that really captures me.

Make up your own mind right here: