“Prolific” isn’t a word you can label Last Bullet with. With a debut in 2010 and a follow-up in 2012, both of which were EPs, there’s not much of a body of work. And once the first track of the quirkily-named 80-69-64 is finished, you’re left with the question of “Why?”
Last Bullet is basically a culmination of all the bands I found myself listening to in my mid-teens. Think Slash and Velvet Revolver, Stone Temple Pilots, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. The opening riff of “Sin” shows the band aren’t pulling any punches along with its pounding bass, you’ll be nodding along before you realise it.
Combining classic sounds into their own unique version, Canada’s hidden gem should be on full view for the world to see where the modern rock scene is littered with dozen of bands all sounding the same. Each song sounds different, almost as a nod to each band which has inspired them, yet they all have the same DNA in there so you know it’s Last Bullet.
“Gimme Time” sounds like it should be sang by a chain gang, meanwhile “Bright Lights” has a modern sounding Slash solo you’d expect to hear in a Velvet Revolver song which is then revisited with “Little Miss Filthy” during his Conspirators reign. Alongside that, there’s the AC/DC-esque opening to “Southern Lips” with its boogie-infused chords which is then immediately followed by the brooding and grungy “Smoke and Ashes” as if it’d been lifted straight from Stone Temple Pilots’ Core.
Despite the disparate changes between tracks, it works. At no point does it feel like the band is trying to do too much. Sleek and polished hard rock, the five-piece have produced something you’d expect from arena-filling bands. And looking at their touring partners, it seems they’ve been put in front of the right audiences but no-one’s taken them up on it.
Not getting the deserved breaks aside, Last Bullet have something truly wonderful in 80-69-64. Taking some of the best bands in the book and moulding it into something new and modern without sounding like every other hard rock band around at the moment, it makes you question the injustices of the music industry as the mediocrity rises to the top and the real talent is left behind.
80-69-64 is out now
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