After revisiting the New York Dolls’ iconic debut album, a no-nonsense hard rock album is just what I need to cap off a week of album reviews. Leave it to Sunset Strip sleaze-mongers Love/Hate to provide exactly that in their latest outing, Punk Rock Fiesta!. Admittedly, this has been released under the “Jizzy Pearl’s Love/Hate” moniker (just like 2022’s Hell, CA), but as far as I know, there aren’t any other past Love/Hate members out there peddling their own iteration of the cult band, so for all purposes, this is a new Love/Hate album, unless Geoff Tate objects (I’m here all night, folks).
Similar to Hell, CA, and every Love/Hate album before it for that matter, Punk Rock Fiesta! keeps it simple and straightforward, treating us to 8 brand new rockers in the course of 28 short minutes. Considering Pearl grew up in the age of Zeppelin, AC/DC, and so forth, he’s more than aware that 30-40 minutes is all you need to make a kickass hard rock album. You can accuse this man of many things. One thing you can’t accuse him of? Indulging in the age-old industry practice of “filling the CD”, which I’m almost sure is a topic I tackled as recent as this week…it’ll come to me.
This fiesta kicks off in style with the heavy and hedonistic “You’re Gonna Burn”, which boasts the balls of the Sunset Strip circa ’89. Amidst all the style over substance, pretty-boy posers polluting the scene and subsequently getting swept up by every major label under the sun, Love/Hate kept glam metal true to its nitty gritty roots, and still do to this day. “Eye for an Eye” kicks up the pace dramatically: A high speed metalpunk sleaze-fest that’s perfect for driving 20 over the speed limit while under the influence. Not that I’d ever advise you to do so, but if you did…
“The Wrath of Love” teeters on the brink of destruction in the best way possible, a blink and you’ll miss it blast of glam punk nostalgia, while “Over the Edge” contrasts lumbering Trouble-esque riffs against sugary sweet choruses. Dare I label this doom-glam? The same can be said for “I’ll Be Your Shadow”, which sounds like an oddball cross between Hollywood Vampires era L.A. Guns and Facelift era Alice in Chains, but I’m not sure how I feel about that one, or the tripped out “Can’t Be Wrong” for that matter. Thankfully, any doubts harbored are utterly destroyed by the street metal fury of the closing “Time to Take Your Pill”.
Yet again, Love/Hate have cranked out a firecracker of an album that any true hard rocker will love, and only a soulless prick would hate. I’d like to think that right now, some leather-clad fifty-something year old has driven up to the Hollywood sign in his beat up Trans Am, a joint lit in his hand and Punk Rock Fiesta! blasting at full volume, reverberating through the dead heat and vast Californian night sky. Of course, fantasy is better than reality.
7 out of 10
Label: Kenyon Records
Genre: Hard Rock
For fans of: L.A. Guns, Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row
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