History
Reviews
ROSE TATTOO - PAIN - SPV
Formed in the late seventies and achieving a following via albums like Assault & Battery, Rose Tattoo collapsed around 1984 seemingly in a haze. A 1993 Aussie tour, a couple of European appearances in 1999 and 2000 (the latter at Wacken) confirmed the come back is real and so here is the band's first studio album in over 25 years. Pain is one explicit album. Notice titles like The Devil Does It Well, Someone To Fuck, Hard Rockin' Man and you will know the band leaves little to the imagination. Rose Tattoo is one high-energy hard rock 'n boogie band. From the opening chord of Black Magic (although House Of Pain later banishes all black magic) you know these are no old time geezers. Every songs has a story to tell with one like Seventeen Stitches simply a showcase for being tough and Someone To Fuck being about just that. The album ends on a high note and in rocking fashion with One More Drink With The Boys. There are 16 tracks and 56 minutes and the production takes the side of the vocals on most of those minutes. Fans of boogie woogie from down under know what they have to do.
ROSE TATTOO – BLOOD BROTHERS – SPV 
SPV first sent us UFO and now, through a deal with Wacken Records which explains the one-year delay in arrival, gives us Rose Tattoo in a series of older bands that light a fire under the ass of younger and ostensibly more energized acts. It is difficult to imagine Rose Tattoo having ever produced a more vibrant, hard, attitude-driven record in its heyday of the early ‘80s. With three younger members around the veteran guitarist Michael Cocks and singer Angry Anderson this album (purportedly their last or not according to a featured answer on the DVD) smokes. From the kick-off of the cover version of Black Eyed Bruiser, which was penned by the Vanda and Young production and writing team that launched the career of Rose Tattoo in some ways, to the sped-up rock and roll of Lubricated the Aussies dish hard attitude reminiscent of early Jackyl and more. Now, yes, Rose Tattoo showed up ten years ahead of Jackyl, but the comparison highlights the attitude, the energy and the sense of excitement on the record. Angry’s vocals tear up with gusto, the guitars are what hard rock guitars were meant to sound like with their crunch and the lyrics, well they are a punch in the face, aren’t they? Of course, the slide guitars and the boogie is intact. The production really neglects the drums though.
This might be the band’s last hurrah given the many deaths, turmoil and illnesses within the ranks. If so, this is one bruise that will last. The references to the good lord above and grace and other superstitions are dumb certainly, but this music is really designed for loud cruising at high speeds not intellectual pursuits and the lyrics negate the religious denotations anyway. And people nowadays think Coldplay is a real rock band nowadays!
The Special Tour Edition comes with a video of the band’s performance at Wacken in Germany in 2006 and band members answering fans’ questions at length. – Ali “The Metallian”
Interviews
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