BODYGUERRA
“Invictus”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9/10

Bodyguerra are a hard rock band from Germany formed in 2010 by guitarist, guitar teacher and musical director Guido Stoecker. The band released its debut album ‘Freddy…nothing as it seems’ in 2013, and sophomore album ‘Fire & Soul‘ in 2021. And now, in 2023, the four piece outfit featuring singer Ela Sturm, (new members) bassist Robert Brenner and drummer Jason Steve Mageney alongside founder Stoecker, return with third album ‘Invictus’…

…a ten song tsunami of hard rock! The band are rocking harder than ever, planting their collective feet firmly and squarely right bang in the middle of the hard rock genre – ‘Blood And Stones’ thumping its way into sight! Hitting hard and kicking harder with a resounding thud, ‘Blood And Stones’ is heavy, infectious mid tempo rock to get heads nodding. The vocal delivery by singer Ela is so powerful, her blues drenched “arena rock roar” commanding the airways.

And after that ground shuddering start, the album oozes a tremendous surge of energy for ‘Troublemaker’, the band increasing tempo and pace to deliver a more demanding slab of hard rock, A definite change of gear, ‘Troublemaker’ varies greatly from the album opener, yet both songs are classic sounding hard rock romps! Moving closer to heavy metal territory, ‘Twilight’ plants its feet firmly on the monitor, galloping forth at a great rate of knots, attracting metalheads into the bands soundscape – heads rocking back and forth fairly vigorously! Bodyguerra have just opened their music up to a very wide audience with fans of rock, metal and the blues finding the opening threesome an attractive proposition. And maintaining the incredible variety on offer, ‘She Bop’ adopts a mighty blues swagger, the kinda swagger you get with American rockers Aerosmith – ‘Invictus’ an identity changing meander through every facet of hard rock.

Germany is much more famous for producing metal bands than rock ones, yet every so often along comes a band that defies the country’s legacy, Bodyguerra one of the more recent bands to buck that trend – the album remaining at the heavier end of the rock genre for the foot stomping ‘Confident Woman’. And the continuation of the blues swagger from before, the levels of intensity and engagement of the album at an all time high! Rock fans of every description will find something attractive here, ‘Devil’s Eye’ the most bombastic song heard so far! The oomph is phenomenal, the rapid fire punch, bludgeoning every listener, fan and follower with an insane amount of power! The album began hard, and has just gotten harder and harder song by song – the pace increasing once again for the rocker come metaller ‘I Stop Listening To You’. The most metal sounding song heard so far, ‘I Stop Listening To You’ is gonna wake up every mosh pit around the world, sending them into a head banging frenzy!

Bodyguerra are proudly standing in the gap between the hard rock and heavy metal genres, occasionally dipping their toes into the blues pond – the band resuming their trademark mid tempo heavy, hard rocking style courtesy of ‘Time Goes By’. Hitting just as hard as every other song heard so far, Bodyguerra seem to have an unlimited amount of energy and oomph – the album a fairly quick moving and irresistible listen. Pace and power blend perfectly with a high tempo for ‘Too Late’, the band maintaining an unbroken level of intensity – bringing to the fore a chant style chorus that every listener and concert goer are gonna fucking love! Come on everyone, all together now, “too late, too late” – simply awesome! And as the final song comes into view, a hard rock album comes to a close without a single ballad in sight – not unusual, but definitely not the norm! ‘Come On, Tell Me’ is more abrasive than every other song on offer, pulsating with a thunderous rhythm, nodding heads and stomping feet with involuntary prowess! And the chorus too, catchy and sing a long-able to the max!

Overall, a heavy hitting hard rock album to attract both rockers and metalheads, ‘Invictus’ is a hard rocking roller coaster.

TRACKLIST

Blood And Stones
Troublemaker
Twilight
She Bop
Confident Woman
Devil’s Eye
I Stop Listening To You
Time Goes By
Too Late
C’mon, Tell Me

https://www.bodyguerra.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Bodyguerra

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