ALBUM REVIEW: Show Me Your Teeth – Beth Blade & The Beautiful Disasters
If you’ve ever been to Cardiff, then you’ll know that as soon as the sun goes down on Womanby Street, all things rock, pop, indie and metal come out to play. Having once stayed at an Air BnB above rock club Fuel, (where at four in the morning the glasses in the kitchen cupboards had to be removed to stop them from smashing. The vibrations from the bone shaking noise emanating from the nu-metal club night below was that bad) it certainly comes as no surprise that the Welsh venue is the birthplace of what would become BETH BLADE & THE BEAUTIFUL DISASTERS.
Beth Blade already had a desire to be a rockstar at the tender age of four, and her BEAUTIFUL DISASTERS cater to all things rock and roll. Since their formation (the story goes that Beth Blade walked into Fuel, said to the bartender she wanted to start band, who then roped in drummer Sam Brain and the rest is herstory), the hard rock four piece have been on an upwards trajectory. Their debut album Bad Habit helped them land support slots with the likes of BLACK STAR RIDERS and performing on the Kiss Kruise.
With the propulsion and enthusiasm of classic rock heads behind them, BETH BLADE & THE BEAUTIFUL DISASTERS headed back in the studio to record their second album Show Me Your Teeth. Opener Secrets gets right down to the crux of BETH BLADE & THE BEAUTIFUL DISASTERS sound: racing guitars and galloping drums dominate the tone of the record, interrupted sporadically by guitar solo after guitar solo.
And if that’s not enough classic rock for you, Show Me Your Teeth is steeped in influences from their contemporaries. THIN LIZZY-esque rhythms weave their way through the bass parts in On And On and Give Me All You’ve Got, while Beth attempts to inject a little power into the melody with her vocals, but falls short as it disappears under all the noise. On Into The Light double tracked guitars mimic that of KISS’ Shout It Out Loud.
At times that powerful potential does shine through, in the more balladic effort Crazy the band take a break from the straight-laced pace, choosing to take things down a more sombre route in its verses before rearing their explosive heads again the chorus. Think something along the lines of Heart’s 1990 smash hit All I Want To Do Is Make Love To You – the hard rock power ballad is there, but the delivery falls a little flat.
It’s achingly clear that BETH BLADE & THE BEAUTIFUL DISASTERS are the emulating the NWOBHM of the 80s; and although trying to bring it crashing back into 2019 they lack the grandeur of stadium rock and roll. The mix continually feels a little off: where Beth sings “I ain’t got nothing, I ain’t got rock and roll” in the track of the same name, you desperately want the chorus refrain to reach out, grab you by the leather biker jacket lapels and blast your ear drums out, but sadly it only reaches mild, hair ruffling power.
By the time closer Jack and Coke rolls around, BETH BLADE & THE BEAUTIFUL DISASTERS have taken us on a journey through the decades, blasting out at break neck speed with a black clad attitude and middle fingers firmly raised in the air. Show Me Your Teeth is a record that has all the potential to leave you air-guitaring for days, but lacks in its production value the capabilities to really rock your socks off. Perhaps it’s a grower, not a shower, and will certainly see BETH BLADE & THE BEAUTIFUL DISASTERS turning heads to their rock and roll cause for many more years to come.
Rating: 7/10
Show Me Your Teeth is out now via self-release.
Like BETH BLADE & THE BEAUTIFUL DISASTERS on Facebook.