Blasting off the Australian continent with their third album of sleaze, comes MYSTERY a Hard Rocking outfit that has toured extensively over their ten years of life, and built a global fan base the old-fashioned way, by working hard. In case there was any doubt about what kind of band this is, the album cover leaves nothing to the imagination, featuring a grinning rockers skull coveting a bottle of whisky against a backdrop of crossed guitars, this is not going to be a subtle experience.

The album begins with what one can only describe as an entirely unnecessary synth intro, that sounds for all the world like they are about to treat us to a slab of horrifying Euro Pop. Thankfully nothing like this transpires, and this ill-advised introduction quickly gives way to a killer Cock Rock sounding riff. Rocky Ravic's vocals are strong, gravelly and a bit meandering, but very characterful. A great approach to the backing vocals, using a chorus of many voices chanting the themes of the song. The lyrics are about as straightforward as they come "This Is a Rock Revolution, Live Life Loud!" but successfully bring a big party feel and sound, setting the tone for what is going to be a lot of fun. Production is a little muddled, not as clear as it all could be, but of course there are probably budgetary constraints.

The second track has a feel of early BON JOVI, Duje Ivic's keyboards are highly reminiscent of "Runaway," the guitars are punctuated by little runs full of pick squeals, and there is a very decent guitar solo to boot. The vocals sound nothing like JBJ however.

The hilariously named "Lust Control" kicks off with a fantastic grinding riff that is much heavier than anything heard on the first two songs, it's also the first song on the album that didn't make me immediately think of a different band. This one doesn't have quite as strong a chorus in my opinion, but it does have an epic guitar solo where Ravic blasts through a masterclass of different techniques, nailing all of them.

"All We Need Tonight" is the album's first attempt at a cheesy ballad, and it's a good one although even if it plays by every rule in the book of writing a cheesy rock bollard, but hey this is no time to be shattering any moulds.

Track seven "A Different Side of Me" is one of the stand-out tracks on the album, it reminds me of the early output of Scottish Rockers GUN before they inexplicably became an awful pop band and trashed their once burgeoning reputation. Quite downbeat, and with anthemic but slightly mournful sounding vocals through the chorus, it's a great bit of heartfelt writing and one you really want to sing along to.

Backing vocals are put to great effect again in "Leave Me in The Dark" I really like the way the band build a sound with these vocals; they are original. Each individual track is quite deliberately lazy but put together this chorus of rasping voices creates a very memorable sound which actually drives the melody home.

On the final track "Nuke Em High", presumably inspired by the classically appalling, but brilliant fun Troma movies, the rhythm section of Oscar Hauke and Emily Car reveal their full potential. The drums are powerful, and the pounding bass is in perfect lockstep with them, this is a satisfyingly blistering end to the album, as Ravic treats us to one last blast of frenetic but precise guitar soloing. Unfortunately, the sound has some problems with dropping in and out, I hope this is just due to the files supplied, and not actually in the final cut of the album.

It would be easy to write this band off as just a tribute to the sounds of 35 years ago, but that would be unfair. While there is a fair amount of mimicry going on here, it's backed up with strong song writing, a broad range of styles and an intuitive understanding of the genres they are celebrating, but only on a handful of tracks do they establish anything that seems like a sound of their own.

The guitars are well recorded, but overall, the production does not provide the clarity and separation needed in this sort of music, still it is very listenable stuff and will definitely come over very well live as it is sure to get the audience up and fist pumping. I have no doubt of that.