Mama Kin - In the City

Young Swedes wear their 70s hard rock influences on their sleeves - and they're good!Taking their name from the classic Aerosmith track, Swedish rockers Mama Kin have burst onto the scene with their debut release In the City.  Mama Kin is a 4 piece hard rock band, that sounds like they just walked out of a time machine from the late 70's.  It is so refreshing to hear the new guys going old school.  I like when young bands, wear their influences on their sleeve, and pay homage to the ones that inspired them to pick up a guitar.  Sounding like a cross between classic Kiss and Thin Lizzy, Mama Kin bring it old school, without sounding too dated.

In the City is a 10 track platter of pure ear-candy for fans of classic hard rock.  This debut is chocked full of hard rocking anthems which contain big choruses and monster riffs.  The songs are well written, but do contain a little cheese to them.  Some of the tunes have the cliche type lyrics popular in the 70's and 80's like in Hey Operator and Fortune and Fame, but fortunately the music is strong enough to carry them. 

There are some really strong tracks on the record like Superman and Too Much.  I really dig the Kiss inspired track Too Much, which sounds like it could have come off Unmasked, but much heavier.  It starts with a cool Dio (Rock-n-Roll Children-esque) type heavy riff, before kicking into a full on Kiss type tune.  Vocalist Ward does a nice job emulating Mr. Stanley for this track.  Ward is a unique vocalist because he is like a cross between Phil Lynott and Paul Stanley.   All in all not a bad debut.

Bottom Line: New rockers taking the classic rock approach.  Good strong sing along type hard rock tunes that will keep you wanting more.

Standout Tracks:  Too Much, Superman, Higher and Higher and In The City

- Ragman is starting to wonder if all [good] metal now comes from Sweden...