{"id":102447,"date":"2024-02-09T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T00:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=102447"},"modified":"2024-02-23T11:47:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T11:47:02","slug":"album-review-smoking-snakes-danger-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-smoking-snakes-danger-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"SMOKING SNAKES – Danger Zone (2024) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SMOKING SNAKES
Danger Zone<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nFrontiers (2024)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019m not sure if this Gothenburg, Sweden-based metal band is named after a Sabaton song or a military division of the Brazilian army? But whichever the case, this is a strong debut full-length of driving heavy rock. Vocalist Brett Martin comes across like a fusion of Black Lawless (W.A.S.P.) and Kevin DuBrow (Quiet Riot), and the cocksure music follows those themes too.<\/p>\n

Slot these guys alongside Germany\u2019s CobraKill and you get one hell of a live show as both bands tackle the heavier side of Dokken right up to the criminally overlooked Beautiful Creatures, who spawned the talents of guitarist DJ Ashba and were fronted by Joe Lest\u00e9 of Bang Tango.<\/p>\n

This is swaggering metal that attracts the girls, kicks down doors and revs engines, with songs like \u2018Run For Your Life\u2019, \u2018Sole Survivors\u2019 and \u2018We Are Alive\u2019 being boisterous anthems for the new rock revolution. There is a sleazy edge to the whole affair which brings to mind a band like Crashd\u00efet, but there is no ignoring the constant nods to the 80s with acts like Loudness.<\/p>\n

There are no gimmicks here, just robust songs that effortlessly swagger and electrify with each introductory riff and sizzling slice of Stan Ricci\u2019s percussion. Leo Razor, alongside Martin, provides walls of riff fire resulting in some fantastic track entrances such as on \u2018Rocking To The Morning Light\u2019, the W.A.S.P.-ish \u2018Excited\u2019 and the fabulous \u2018There Is No Tomorrow\u2019. But you can flick through any of the 11 songs available here and you\u2019ll settle on a cool metallic riff that will have you nodding along in no time.<\/p>\n

The backbone of the record is the bass of Andy Delarge, but as a team Smoking Snakes rumble in all the right places and, most importantly, with straight and snarling faces. Deliciously melodic yet rugged, Smoking Snakes could just well be my new favourite band.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SMOKING SNAKESDanger Zone Frontiers (2024)Rating: 8\/10 I\u2019m not sure if this Gothenburg, Sweden-based metal band is named after a Sabaton song or a military division of the Brazilian army? But whichever the case, this is a strong debut full-length of driving heavy rock. Vocalist Brett Martin comes across like a fusion of Black Lawless (W.A.S.P.) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5584],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-smoking-snakes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102448,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102447\/revisions\/102448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}