Gotthard – #13
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release date: March 13th, 2020
Website: www.gotthard.com
The advance single “Bad News” already had caused some huge disappointment here at the editorial staff and resulted in the fact, that none of the writers really wanted to take over this review. Any questions left? We’re speaking about no other band than mighty GOTTHARD who used to be considered as one of the leading bands from the Hard Rock genre for decades. And the bad news really is that it even can get worse as the song of the same name is still one of the better tracks on this release. Nick Maeder does a good job and seems now to be integrated into the band very well but the song-writing appears to be a bit decent, especially when you keep in mind how many big hits this band previously has created. The post-modern sound which used to be popular during the – in terms of Rock music – poor 90’s and decent early 00’s and now is offered on this record has been already dead again since years now.
Bluesy influenced elements now are only hardly found. The band is in fine shape, the sound, except the a bit too much clinic drum sound, is powerful and clear. What the album lacks all over are the catchy hooks and remarkable chorusses which made GOTTHARD once so much enjoyable.
Even the ABBA cover of “S.O.S.” sounds completely odd here. One of the few highlight moments might be the ballad “Marry You”. I have my doubts that I’ll ever listen to this record again and this is might be an even a hard one for die-hard fans of GOTTHARD. Tracks as such as “I Can’t Say Sorry” have not much in common with any other song from this group.
6/10
Tracklist:
1. Bad News 3:25
2. Every Time I Die 4:08
3. Missteria 3:16
4. 10.000 Faces 3:04
5. S.O.S 3:49
6. Another Last Time 4:01
7. Better Than Love 3:27
8. Save The Date 3:23
9. Marry You 4:21
10. Man On A Mission 3:46
11. No Time To Cry 5:15
12. I Can Say I’m Sorry 3:44
13. Rescue Me 5:46
14. No Time To Cry (demo version) 4:14
15. I Can Say I’m Sorry (piano version) 4:22
