Hell of a Ride – Fast As Lightning (2013)

Arriving from France, today we have another excellent Hard Rock release filled with attitude and catchiness. Hell of a Ride provide us with their latest EP titled “Fast As Lightning”, featuring four tracks and seven bonus live recordings to sweeten the deal. With a high-octane Hard Rock vibe, this band steamrolls with their high-energy music filled with intoxicating rhythms and commanding vocals.

Opening with the playful intro track, “Fast As Lightning” kicks off the musical side of things with a very typical Hard-Rocking tune that is both engaging and entertaining. The band’s vocalist Furious Djej does a great job in leading the band’s onslaughts with excellent fitting vocal melodies and great intensity. With each track featuring a cool intro section (appearing as an individual track on the CD), the band nicely sets the stage before each song. Inspired by Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, the band’s attitude is the main selling point of this release, greatly enhanced by excellent music we might add.

In terms of sheer power, the distorted guitars of “Tears and Scars” make it the heaviest track in the release, but not without the extra doses of catchiness that are prevalent in every single song. Nicely closing the ‘regular’ side of things with the Western-themed “Where’s My Damn Car”, the band showcases their excellent song-writing abilities while crafting very enticing (and unique) tracks.

In terms of the live content, we get acoustic renditions of all the main songs but in a very campfire-esque setting that makes them sound like a totally different release. Both versions of the songs clearly show the great underlying foundations of the band’s music and provide a very nice insight into the band’s live experience.

As a whole, “Fast As Lightning” is a very promising release with a band filled with attitude and the right skills to make catchy and engaging Hard Rock music. With an epic feeling to most songs in the acoustic set, we are left with great expectation for any future material of this band, so keep an eye out for them and head to their website to get a copy of this release in the meantime.

Label: Send the wood

Release: September 23rd, 2013

Genre: Hard Rock

Country: France