photo courtesy of Head First Entertainment

Album Review of Hell’s Addiction: Nine O’Clock Horses

Whether you consider this genre to be heavy rock or classic metal, Hell’s Addiction‘s Nine O’Clock Horses is a collection of fast-paced, engaging, hard-driving earbleeders… in the best possible way.

The album opens heavy – full of guitar, drums, and fury – with power rocker “Leave It Alone.” The next song, “Upside Down,” opens kinda haunty before launching into a sidewinding, heavy, unnerving rhythm with a cool, edgy delivery.

image courtesy of Head First Entertainment

Song number three on the disc, “Scream Your Name,” was the album’s first single, and it was a terrific choice. “Scream Your Name” is a hook-filled heavy melodic rocker with that utilizes stop-starts, tempo changes, soaring vocals, and repeated guitar hooks to jump off the record. This song, in particular, is straight out of the late ’80s/early ’90s, akin to something that might have been a big hit for Slaughter.

“Run For Your Life” follows, equally catchy and classic hard rock-based but a little more timeless. “Crying Over Me,” which follows, is a little heavier and a little edgier.

photo courtesy of Head First Entertainment

“Your Master Plan” opens as a guitar-driven, eerily soaring heavy metal ballad, with the “there’s got to be another way” serving as the singalong lyrics while the music bed roars with muted power.

“Save Me” serves up a heavy thumping rock rhythm that drives the song forward forcefully in support vocals that are generally more tuneful than the aggressive instrumentation might typically suggest. Then, similar to the “Run for Your Life”/”Crying Over Me” sequence earlier in the record, the following song “Give Me a Sign” skews heavier. And it’s followed by a ballad.

photo courtesy of Head First Entertainment

In this case, though, said ballad “Love” is a stripped-down, barebones heartfelt plea for more than half of the song, seemingly a la Mr. Big, before quite suddenly but naturally morphing into a very electric guitar-driven power ballad with much fuller production for the final minute-plus. Very cleverly arranged.

Sidewinding guitar rocker “Playing Chicken With a Knife,” straightforward classic rocker “Stare Into the Sun,” and chicken-fried, swampily rhythmic heavy rocker “Cannot Hide” close things out.

Beginning to end, Nine O’Clock Horses is a robust, enthusiastic guitar rock album that draws upon the heavier, edgier segment of the ’80s-style classic, heavy melodic rock subgenre. If you rock hard and dig guitars, you’ve gotta hear this disc.