Stephen It's pretty ordinary to see a new band playing old-school 80s sound, but it's still an interesting find for me to see a band try combining some anthemic power of Kiss, party frenzy of Poison, the sleaziness attitude of GNR, and some tender touch of Scandinavian AOR. This Swedish glam outfit might deliver nothing new to the scene, but the complete package that came along with them is simply applauding. "It's all about having fun", definitely a perfect slogan behind the music they unleashed, if you don't mind uncomplicated-yet-unadulterated straight forward hard rock, their debut, "Die For Diamonds", is a very complacent experience.

Check out the first track, "Boys Night Out". An uptempo melodic galore with some sleazy verse really paid homage to the stadium-era of Kiss. "Highest Mountain" picked up the modern Bon Jovi style while "Lose It" and "Nineteen Ninety Four" have some sleazy moment and danceable tunes. Come to think of it, singer Frankie Rich’s pipes is comparable to Wig Wam’s Age Sten Nielsen, the thin tone with some memorable squeaky style is quite similar. Examples of the band venturing to the AOR territory can be seen in “Restless Minds”, a haunting radio potential melodic rock with some huge chorus and “Key To My Heart” is another commercial gem that reminds me to one of Crazy Lixx’s tune. Some other good tracks to listen here are “Right On Time” and “We Don’t Live Forever” while “Second Time Around” and “Stand Your Ground” are pretty decent to my ears.

With many of the songs are in the same corridor as what their senior did in the 80s, Billion Dollar Babies’ debut is a great catch if you want to capture the juice of that era, but looking at their originality is something they might need to work out in the next release. From the production value, “Die For Diamonds” sounded too raw for a polished music like this, some vocal part could have done better, but overall, the strong arrangement is what makes the album shine. A nice start and a promising debut from the Swedish quintet !