Who wants some Rocking preaching? Who wants to take the holy V8 into a full throttle ride into the world of MOTORJESUS? What did those guys bring us anyway? I can't guarantee that I can answer all these wishes aside from the latter. Well, that last remark served as a good opener for this small speech about this "Evil Or Devine" American band's sophomore release, "Wheels Of Purgatory", via Artoffact Records. So who is in for a hell ride under the engine of these fast wheels?

Everything that surrounds and knee deep rooted in this release smelled like a crossbreed of genres. Every once in a while I think it is pretty good to handle a release like this one because it is amazing to see how a band took a few genres and mashed them together. Whether it's Rock, Metal, Punk and Grunge, each and every one of those genres, old and new, contributed their part to the fight. The music has interesting twists and turns, in and out of different, yet slightly shared, musical roots. I got to hand it out to these guys, breaking the boundaries of a single, or even two, genres. Doing hard to the bone Rock / Metal al'a AC / DC, MOTORHEAD with grooves of Grunge and Punk can be a bit risky. But who is the world to show these guys the right way? There isn't a right way anyway.

The material itself is quite easy and it shows the rather catchier aspects of every genre. Moreover, the template of the tracks is quite identical between them and is pretty much simple. It seemed that the aim of the band was to hit the bull's-eye fast with catch phrases before they would sour or to get the rate of energy steady from another powerful chorus. I have to agree that superb tracks in the likes of "Fist Of The Dragon" (A hell of Bruce Lee oriented karate fighting killer), "The Shadowman" (The ultimate Hard Rock / Metal experience) and the revolutionary "Fire 99", are very close and even fit that assumption.

However, I wasn't that thrilled with this album when almost every song presented the same thing but with different riffs. Cool mixture or not, the overuse of the same template throughout the songs might have been fruitful in order to breed life into some hard breaking choruses, but I would have let go some of those for some different and rather more constructive sections that would have given some of the material a finer edge to begin with. MOTORJESUS's tunes are maybe cool and in their way pleasing, but sound as a reproduction of each other under the same formula.

Don't get me wrong, I found lots of talents within this band. Especially in the lead section that consists of the diverse vocalic ability of Chris Birx and great lead axe Andreas Peters that handled all the solo peak moments. However, it would be expected of a band that seems to hold diversity dear to not overdo the same traditional template in their songs because it sounds easy or cool. "Wheels Of Purgatory"is recommended for every diverse hard music fan that likes a little challenge for his ears. I would say go for it.