Mass Movement Magazine

The Prophets Of Addiction – Babylon Boulevard CD
POSTED BY MARTIJN ON JANUARY - 5 - 2012

    From the name of the band to the name of the album to the ass-kicking, heavier-than-a-ton-of-bricks sleaze rawk contained within the grooves, this seems to have been created just for me. Damn, I love the sleaze. And I love the rawk. And I love the heavy-heavy. ‘Babylon Boulevard’ is all three, and then some. These cats have taken the best of NYC’s sleaze-punk days (Johnny Thunders, The Throbs, Circus Of Power) and the best of the early glam-sleaze days (Hanoi Rocks, Dogs D’Amour, Sea Hags), and slammed them together with the force of a hundred freight trains. There’s no studio trickery here, either; these are raw recordings that sound gloriously like the band playing live on the best night of their lives. Even the acoustic guitars (on ‘Mistress Addiction’, for example) sound heavier than most modern rock bands’ densely layered electric guitars, and the kick drum seems ready to puncture the speakers at any moment. Vocalist Lesli Sanders (who was part of Marky Ramone’s solo band a few years ago) comes off like a cross between Danny Nordahl and Coyote Shivers, with all the attitude of Michael Monroe – which is about as good as it gets, believe me – and the band shakes the groove out like the bastard offspring of The Stooges and The Hellacopters. I’ve found my new addiction – and yes, a record this good deserves a pun that bad.
-The Impaler