The Hardest Town in Bloomington, MN

Let's get it out of the way: yes,
Rhino Bucket
still sound almost exactly like
AC/DC
. They've even got the Aussies' former drummer,
Simon Wright
, back on drums (he also appeared on the band's 1994 disc
Pain
). For this, their fifth release and second since reuniting in 2001, they've brought in new guitarist
Brian Forsythe
, formerly of Maryland pop-metallers
Kix
. He's a talented player, but when your job description reads "sound as much like
Angus Young
as possible," it's hard to put your own stamp on the music. Still, he manages, throwing a little extra hard-blues feel into the mix, coming across like a cross between
Young
and
ZZ Top
's
Billy Gibbons
at times. Frontman
Georg Dolivo
sounds a lot like
Bon Scott
, but he's not a clone; his voice has coarsened with age, putting him in territory closer to
Def Leppard
Joe Elliott
on quite a few songs. Ah, but the songs: that's where this album falls down on the job. While many of them are powered by hard-rocking riffs and bluesy grooves, not one of them is memorable once it's stopped playing. Which, come to think of it, is true of the majority of songs on any
album released in between
Back in Black
Black Ice
, too. ~ Phil Freeman