Hydrogyn - Deadly Passions

Hydrogyn - hailing from Kentucky - want to rock up and rock your world with their new album 'Deadly Passions'. Guitarist Jeff Westlake said that "We wanted something a broad audience could love, but also be something special, something that stood out."

To get it out of the way right at the start, isn't that the kind of thing most rock bands want? I may be wrong, but I'm not expecting anyone to stand up and say "you know what, we want to record an album that everyone's gonna hate". Well now I've said it, I'm sure I'm gonna be proved wrong.

But I digress. Hydrogyn kick full force into a hard rocking album, that actually might do want Westlake said he wanted. Julie Westlake, the bands vocalist, certainly has a voice that is capable of guiding the band onwards and upwards, but also a voice that can change to suit the different styles of songs on this album. Take the albums title track as an example and we see a melodic, while somewhat aggressive style shooting forth, and then follow that straight up with an excellent cover of the Alanis Morrisette classic "You Oughta Know" which sees Westlake singing in a similar style to Morrisette, while the band up the tempo, and turn this into a hard rocking anthem, while staying true to the original.

High praise, I love Alanis.

This is a solid album, well produced, with some great tracks for the hard rock crowd, but there really is enough here to appeal to the more traditional melodic rockers out there, and probably enough to pull in more general alternative fans.

I guess Jeff Westlake might actually have got what he wanted. Maybe next time he'll be asking for a platinum record?