Madtropolis

Madtropolis is something that few bands would be gutsy enough to attempt in 2003: a full-on, '70s-style progressive rock concept album, complete with "heavy" lyrics (as a band, Chinchilla seems to be against corruption and apathy), a guest cameo by Motörhead's "Fast" Eddie Clarke, and a codpiece-classical opening and closing theme played on Rick Wakeman-style synthesizers! God love 'em for bringing back the days of Hawkwind (or at least Queensrÿche), and even better, they managed to record an entire hourlong metal album in 2003 without once stooping to the inane growled cartoon voices that are the bane of post-millennial metal. Actually, if anything, singer Tommy Laasch recalls the histrionic likes of Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickenson or Skid Row's Sebastian Bach, a keening vocal style that's currently so out of date that it's retro-cool; ditto the so-cheesy-it's-fun power ballad "Satellite," the sort of Bic-lighter sway-along that the likes of Poison and Guns N' Roses made a staple of during the late-'80s hair metal scene. There's undeniably something goofy about Madtropolis, but it's also both endearing in its sincerity and surprisingly powerful.