Babylon Bombs and Hell n Diesel: June 5th 2008 - The Borderline, London

Hell n Diesel took to the stage looking every in the filthy metalgods you’d expect them to be. The lead singer looked especially like he’s been frozen in a lab somewhere since the early 90’s and the grunge apocalypse killed rock n roll. I’ve heard a few tracks of there’s through myspace and youtube so I was really keen to check these guys out. They may look like an 80’s rock covers band, but Hell n Diesel havetaken all the classic sleaze influences and made a sound their of their own. You get riff after riff and soaring vocal lines one after another, They have a quite harsh almost industrial edge to their sound live andespecially on CD which works well with their gritty hard rock sound.

The best frame of reference I can think of would be if you imagined Crue had recorded “Girls Girls Girls” with the same production that they had on “Motley Crue” their grittier 90’s album with John Corabi on vocals. You getall the energy of sleaze and cock rock but the darker more harsh sounding production that takes away some of the cheesiness. As a live band they could have been a little more animated, but onthe night they stomped through a set of cracking tunes played so tightly you’d be hard pressed to tell live from the CD. If I had a criticism tomake it would be just that, it was very competent, but maybe a little clinical.

For me at least, when I see a rock band live, part of the fun is watching drunk musicians fuck up and fall over. I have the CD if I want to hear a perfect rendition. A great band and a great set all the same.

Next up are the Babylon Bombs. There’s not a lot I can say about them really, they are utter Sleazy pop punk perfection! Again, I was new ofthe band through Myspace and youtube, and they really lived up to my expectations. They charged through a great set, every chorus was a shout along classic.The played with the energy and swagger you’d expect from them. Tracks like “Hometown hero” and “Louder” really go the crowd going and the band were clearly loving it.The whole night was a great bill. It’s not very often I’ve gone tosee two bands play live and bought both their CDs. If there’s any justice in the world, we’ll be seeing a lot more from both bands.

Reviewed by Robin Barnett

© Pure Rawk 2008