Back in 1989 when glam rock was on a rampage, the Swedes of SHOTGUN MESSIAH enjoyed a sizable success owing to their eponymous debut release, recently reissued as an opportunity for a strikingly different generation to sip the music their elder siblings used to bang to around the emergence of the walkman. And beware, as due to the impressive altering of standards from music to fashion, some of you may experience a cultural shock!

Unleashed on a blues-infused hard tone, provocative and promising tracks from the genus of "Bop City" set a condensed and groovy coalescence of vocals inoculated on a high pitched falsetto backed by jolly harmonic vocals, all along rapping passages that would become more rampant during the early 90s. Still, the instruments even outperformed the vocal melodies with a pivotal rhythm section of echoed drums and patent bass lines scratching your inner torso mostly in "Nervous" or better "Nowhere Fast", talking about a genre fueled by spandex pants thirsting for the groove!

What stands out - even on a slight degree - is a voice that's nearest to the vocalist's natural range with some high-pitched seasoning. Poorly-written melodies coming off as the loophole of the album, yet uncovering a nasal technique bestowing such a weird edge on it, and most of all you've got in hand a vocalist enjoying such a sarcastic character commonly found among glammers - fake or not, peu importe - bringing back to my mind the old memories of singers like that of UGLY KID JOE, and how it epitomizes the sheer ecstasy of glam rock/hair metal (call it whatever you please!) in contrast with the more inflexible humour of the contemporaneous thrash wave.

Meanwhile, a greater part of the credit is owed to the instruments in the first place, as a criterion of complexity as well as a sign of dérapage from what's been beforehand. Under the rule of an unswerving compact rhythmic quarter notes resounding in your ears, the lead guitar was granted proper room to bounce off from chords to shreds and vice versa, at times playing meowing, hissing and scratching solos, or sliding like in "Nervous" also featuring a timid amateurish appearance of keyboards despite the 80s being their golden decade, other times tapping as on "Nowhere Fast" with firm palm mutes and a freaking awesome bass line for those about to rock. Speaking of the latter, the bassist literally rambled on "Dirt Talk" all pampered by striking guitar feedbacks and bends, a funky track skillfully handled by a fearless solo guitarist and contributive overdub harmonics making those passages a sheer pleasure.

Now straight to the real shotgun: a more technical track "The Explorer", itself exploring a wide array of what a listener from our profile fancies of tapping, PAUL GILBERT-ish guitar/bass tandem synchrony, triplets and even orchestral background root notes etc...With the exception of the drums, it can undoubtedly pass for the thin line between rock and metal (which can also be virtual, isn't it?). An instrumental odyssey of tap and all that is sugar and spice, it comes off not only as a huge plus value to the album, but also as another nth counterargument defying the poser connotations some know-it-all metalheads falsely glue on the glam genre.

"Shotgun Messiah" is a bona fide blast. Take it or leave it! Despite missing the thing that sticks in your head, the overall quantitative (not qualitative) lack of harmonics and overdubs, when it comes not to a renovation but to the essence directly from that era, it would definitely an experience surpassing even some MOTLEY CRUE releases. A green light for it!<