Review Summary: An excellent, attitude laden heavy metal album
Cycle Sluts From Hell is an American heavy metal album which was formed in the mid 1980s and disbanded in the early 1990s. The band was short lived and despite touring with the likes of Danzig and Motörhead, released only 1 album - the eponymous Cycle Sluts From Hell, which was released in 1991.
One way to approach the album is to imagine it is a half finished Renaissance masterpiece in a gilt gold frame. The beautiful artwork represents the vocals and lyrics of the four leather clad lead lead singers performing under the stage names Queen Vixen, She-Fire of Ice, Honey One Percenter and Venus Penis Crusher. The stage names promise attitude and the ladies do not fail to deliver; you can almost gear the attitude dripping from the vocals of the four vocalists, especially in the excellent Bag of Balls.The verses often feature individual singing, whilst the choruses are song together. Combined with the simple choruses, the attitude laden group singing creates an extremely kick ass sing along effect, which really adds to the quality of the songs. The lyrics in the songs are pretty simple, but in the first half of the album they are excellent. Like the actual painting, the lyrics and vocals are the main feature of the album and are certainly the biggest strength of the band, which is played to throughout the album.
The gilded golden picture frame is the heavy metal musicianship which provides a soundtrack to the album. They are not the main work, but instead seem to emphasise and complement the vocals. Bobby Gustafon provides some fantastic guitar leads, and this remains strong throughout the album. Underneath the gold gilt, is the basic wooden frame - the drum work and bass on the album. Although nothing special, and not particularly audible, they serve their purpose. It's purpose, like the picture frame, is not to overshadow the artwork, but to complement and emphasise how good it is, and that is achieved very well.
As mentioned at the start, the album is like a half finished masterpiece. The first half of the album is excellent: 6 tracks of pure metal. However, after this the album trails off and becomes a bit more generic and dull although there are still some good guitar leads. The album is excellent and the first half of the album more than makes up for the weaker second half and it is overall a thoroughly enjoyable piece of heavy metal, with good guitar leads and attitude filled vocals with killer lyrics.
