lukretion The third album of Swedish sleaze/glam rockers Hardcore Superstar is a definite improvement over their previous records. The sound is much cleaner. The songwriting strikes a better balance between musicality and the raw party-animal spirit the band aims to convey with their music. Overall, this album comes across as a much more polished and professional affair relative to the previous records.

Despite the clear improvements, this is not an album I'd recommend outside the circle of hardcore aficionados of the Swedish sleaze/glam rock revival of the 1990s. It has a few decent rockers, with catchy choruses and good guitar work. Songs like "Not Dancing, Wanna Know Why?", the mellow ballad "Shame" and "Just Another Score" make for good car or party music. There's enough energy and melody in these tracks to entertain for a handful of minutes. But the album quickly loses steam, delving deeper and deeper into a rabbit hole made of dubious reggaetons ("Smoke'Em"), songs that leave the listener with a suspicious sense of deja-vu ("Wimpy Sister", play spot-the-difference with "Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance"), mediocre rockers ("Do Me That Favour", That's My Life", "Riding with the King") and sappy ballads ("Dear Old Fame", "Mother's Love").

Overall, I'd say two-thirds of the material on this album is forgettable, and a good third borders on the annoying. It is a pity because on those three / four songs where things fall into place, Hardcore Superstar do manage to sound convincing and compelling. But there is just too much mediocre material here to rate this album higher than this.

Kev Rowland Well, these fun loving Swedes have been releasing albums for fifteen years now and are back with their ninth, and do you know what? This is fun from the first song to the last. I defy anyone to listen to “Above The Law” and not be joining on on the chorus by the second time around. They call themselves street rock, but to me this is Faster Pussycat mixed with Poison with a serious dose of Guns ‘n’ Roses and Skid Row thrown in for good measure. From the first to the last this is all about letting your hair down and having a good time. It may not be music that demands you to think, but who cares? I know that there are going to be plenty of times when all I want to do is play this to the max and sit back with a huge grin on my face. If this had come out in the Eighties we would all be hailing this as the next big thing. As it is, let’s just hope that they get the posoitive press they so richly deserve. This is a blast, a real nuclear blast (sorry, couldn’t resist). www.nuclearblast.de

Bomb Brigade With this,the band's first album after resigning with Gain Records,and five album already into their career at the time,Hardcore Superstar truly arrives once and for all...over and over and over.With its plethora of clever and well thought out material,it's no wonder that this album was nominated for a Swedish Grammy and reached all the way up to a number twelve position on its native record charts. This self-title album from Hardcore superstar is,plain and simply,to cool to be missed!KICK ON THE UPPERCLASS,WE DON'T CELEBRATE SUNDAYS,and WILD BOYS are as good as anything that the sleaze rock movement has delivered to us in many years.Hardcore Superstar lets us,the listeners,know again and again that they are kicking ass and taking names with each of these songs.BAG ON YOUR HEAD and CRY YOUR EYES OUT are two more great examples of effective songwriting,superior performace,and proper execution. With every song here,Jocke Berg's vocals are a constant reminder of what it really means to be dirty and from the gutter,delivering the lyrical content of this band to us on a tarnished(just the way we want it to be)silver platter and letting us know the he means business. Forget about what Axl is doing these days,and don't bother to waste your hard earned money on...what was the name of that album again?Oh,yeah...Chinese Democracy.This album is the real deal!Hardcore Superstar spares nothing in establishing the fact that they are the real deal and that they are the band that should be recognized.