DERAPS is a young up-and-coming rock 'n' roll band (their words) consisting of Canadian guitarist and vocalist Jacob Deraps (winner of the 2016 Dweezil & Frank Zappa Fellowship Award), Canadian bassist William Lachance and Australian drummer Josh Gallagher. The self-titled album is their debut and is released on Metalville Records.

I gave up listening to Cock-Rock bands like POISON, MOTLEY CRUE et al a long time ago and I guess this falls into the Sleaze Rock category. DERAPS cite a lot of influences like AC/DC, VAN HALEN and WHITESNAKE though don't hit the heady heights of any of them.

Ignoring the pointless "Invasion" which is a 14 second instrumental track, the first track is "Sex Drugs and Rock N Roll" which is decent enough. It has good harmonised vocals and whilst the guitar is scratchy, there's some nice lead from Jason and he's a decent singer too. The production however lacks punch with the bass very much in the right channel and the guitar strangely prominently mixed in the left channel. This is a common problem with all the tracks except "Veins Of My Heart" where there's a central mix and I'm at a loss why they've done this and is a contributing factor to the lack of punch.

"My Side Of Town" comes next with some atmospheric traffic sounds and spoken vocals. The chorus is very catchy and the drums sound better than the previous track. It's Sleaze Rock done right and is probably the best track on the album with some great lead guitar.

"Live Fast Die Slow" comes next with an irritating 'laughing guitar' verse though some great lead licks from Jacob. The bass is very prominent too which makes a change.

"You gotta live fast if you wanna die slow" is a good lyric for the chorus and the track is generally decent.

The cringe lyrics of "Veins Of My Heart" did detract from my enjoyment of the track.

"She said it's just for fun but I can feel her tongue
Wrapped around the veins of my heart."

How long is her tongue??

The most interesting part of the track was the guitar mix which was in the centre instead of in the left channel. It does sound better and the solo guitar sounds more effective so again can't understand the left mix for the guitar for the other tracks.

There's a Hawaiian feel to "Make Ya Groove" but it all seems so lacklustre as is the forgettable "Wild To The Woman" which kind of has an early TESLA or GREAT WHITE feel but with lyrics like:

"With an angel's lips, a pair of venomous hips she says OWWW you want in."

it fails to impress. I know it's Sleaze Rock so I'm not expecting deep lyrical poetry but still...

"On My Mind" has an irritatingly twee chorus that is repeated way too many times:

"Girl you're always on my mind
Night and day, rain or shine
Girl you're always on my mind"

The penultimate track "Fuck Off" just seems out of place and forced and again lyrics like

"Love me, hate me touch me then rape me" (uhhh....ok) do nothing to really inspire.

They do however finish off with a decent cover of SWEET's 70s track "Ballroom Blitz" which I always thought was BAR room for some reason.

This is, to be fair, DERAPS debut album and whilst Jacob is certainly a competent guitarist and vocalist, the production issues and often cringe lyrics do result in this being an average album instead of a great one.