VELVET INSANE
“High Heeled Monster”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9/10

Velvet Insane are a rock band from Sweden formed in 2013, releasing three albums to date – ‘Velvet Insane’ (2019), ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Glitter Suit’ (2020), and ‘High Heeled Monster’ released in 2023…

…featuring the bands trademark sound – a sound that harks back to the seventies, when glam rock bands such as Slade, T-Rex, David Bowie, and the Rolling Stones began to re-write the classic rock genre to incorporate elements of the burgeoning disco phenomena!

So it’s time to dust off your platform shoes, iron your satin shirts and flared trousers, limber up and hit the dance floor to strut your stuff – stuff that includes dance moves such as Bump, Hustle, Funky Chicken, and the iconic Disco Finger!

Thirty four highly energetic and rabble rousing minutes gets underway with the entertaining ‘Bamalama Breakout’ – a feisty smile inducing romp that’s gonna raise everyone up onto the dance floor. Not me though, I’m not a dancer, I’m a head banger – although I won’t be doing that either! For this album is full to the brim with party anthems, sing a long sass, and a seventies disco feel! The band maintain the albums electrifying start with the mid tempo march of ‘Boogie Star’, swaying hips and tapping feet as it struts its stuff with elegance and poise. Velvet Insane are relentless in their pursuit of bringing an age old classic rock sound to the modern day, ‘Damage Control’ sounding like it time travelled here from the seventies when bands such as Slade and T-Rex ruled the roost. The infectious foot tapping nature that the band inject into every song they deliver is incredible, even my feet are tapping along!

Now I know I’ve said it before, but us metalheads do like a bit of rock now and then, although you won’t hear too many boast about it! And with the party now in full swing, Velvet Insane continue their unending quest to deliver happy music, the next delightful offering ‘Sweet As It Can Be’ a wonderful hand clapper that’ll have everyone singing and dancing as one. Is this really as sweet as it can be? Good god no – there’s plenty more to come yet. There’s eleven songs on offer and we’ve just listened to number four! ‘Don’t Let The Poor Boy Down’ is slower tempo’d, a song for late evening when the lights are turned down low and all the couples hog the dance floor to slow dance the night away. And almost immediately, the band are energetically rocking and rolling once more as ‘Looking For A Rock (About To Roll)’ takes flight, sending everyone into a frenzy and the die hard dancers back to the dance floor! The insane happiness that oozes from every song on offer is phenomenal, Velvet Insane true heroes of classic rock.

Pumping the adrenaline level higher than at any other point on the album, ‘Jemmy’ is a classic old swinger that’s gonna have everyone energetically pulling shapes – showing just how flexibly fit you have to be to keep pace with this breathless brand of rock. Although ‘Hardest Of Hearts’ does allow a breather for the un-fitter among us, not a slow dancer, but definitely a take it easy kind of song! Yet the incredibly high infectious level the band have sewn into every song on ‘High Heeled Monster’ is still very much intact. In fact, it’s fucking marvellous! As is ‘Runaway Bride’ – a boisterous barrage of “get this party started”. Not that the party needs starting, or even re-starting, for the band have kept the party well and truly alive since it began (with ‘Bamalama Breakout’).

And there’s absolutely no sign of the party ending any time soon either, especially when ‘Act Together’ opens with the line “we gotta shake and twist”. So come on everyone, get onto the dance floor and show us how you shake and twist! The final song on offer ‘Saturday Night ‘Til Sunday Morning’ features a number of special guests – Dregen (The Hellascopters), Chips Kiesbye (Sator), and Bonni Ponten (Asta Kask). And the albums final hurrah is the nearest any of the songs on offer gets to the modern day hard rock sound – pounding the ground hard with relentless abandon and tonnes of fun!

Overall, a delightful disco dance inferno of breathless classic rock, inducing smiles wherever it’s played and heard.

TRACKLIST

Bamalama Breakout
Boogie Star
Damage Control
Sweet As It Can Be
Don´t Let The Poor Boy Down
Looking For A Rock (About To Roll)
Jemmy
Hardest Of Hearts
Runaway Bride
Act Together
Saturday Night ‘Til Sunday Morning (Feat: Dregen, Chips Kiesbye and Bonni Pontén)

https://www.facebook.com/velvetinsane

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