ROCK ROTTEN’S 9MM ASSI ROCK N’ ROLL, Fegefeuer (2007, Cargo)

The skull:
I’m pretty sure Rock Rotten acquired this painting, along with the name of his band and the title of his album, from some vendor at Sturgis. The art was airbrushed on leather, and framed. Mr. Rotten traded five replacement kaiser helmet spikes and a vintage Balls to the Wall backpatch for it. I’m told most of the songs on the album are actually about how much he misses that backpatch, but I can neither confirm nor deny this, as I only know as much German as needed to follow a handful of not-so-good Sodom songs, all of which are about bombs, and none of which are about assis.

The music:
This is just heavied-up AC/DC worship sung in German. So, like an even dumber Böhse Onkelz, basically. It’s weird how Germans will give pretty much any rock band a pass on quality so long as they sound like drunk guys singing into their steins. I personally can’t stand AC/DC, and I think even less of their clones, and drinking songs in all languages are idiotic, so this is pretty much torture for me. I guess if you’ve always thought Airbourne would be better with more umlauts, then be prepared to shake it for Rock Rotten.
— Friar Johnsen