The best way to describe Italian based Heavy Rock quintet ROCKSTAR FRAME is probably "Lovechild of VIXEN and THE BLACK CROWS". That (coming from me) is of course in a good way. Their debut album "Rock N' Roll Mafia" contains both the loose, slightly tipsy fun vibe of the CROWS and catchy melody, big sound and vocal prowess of VIXEN.

It would be in fact very accurate to say that "Rock N' Roll Mafia" is one of the albums I had the most fun listening to in the past 2 years. It's not a perfect album- it's a bit too long with 15 songs clicking at over an hour, it could have some more guitar presence and of the texts aren't always of high level (for example in the song "Cheery Boobs"). All things considered though, "Rock N' Roll Mafia" is a very promising piece of music.

Although all the players are very talented and bring their own flavor to the mix, the strongest feature player-wise are Faith Blurry's vocals. Despite the clear resemblance to Janet Gardner, she also has a unique big and somewhat more modern sound. Also contributing to the bands' cool retro sound are the keyboards of Ace Wave. As I mentioned before, I was very impressed with Morris Steel's guitar chops, though in my opinion the music called for of its' presence.

One element of the band that doesn't have anything to do directly to their musicality is appearance. Judging by the bands Facebook page, if you would go to one of their shows you won't be able to tell the difference between the band and the security guys. Now wait a second before you accuse me of irrelevance- we all know that Rock N' Roll music bares some aesthetics. Not that you need to look like a 1986-era Dee Snider, but the average rocker look just doesn't cut it for bands in this genre.