The Hardest Town

Let's get it out of the way: yes, Rhino Bucket still sound almost exactly like AC/DC. They've even got the Aussies' former drummer, Simon Wright, back on drums (he also appeared on the band's 1994 disc Pain). For this, their fifth release and second since reuniting in 2001, they've brought in new guitarist Brian Forsythe, formerly of Maryland pop-metallers Kix. He's a talented player, but when your job description reads "sound as much like Angus Young as possible," it's hard to put your own stamp on the music. Still, he manages, throwing a little extra hard-blues feel into the mix, coming across like a cross between Young and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons at times. Frontman Georg Dolivo sounds a lot like Bon Scott, but he's not a clone; his voice has coarsened with age, putting him in territory closer to Def Leppard's Joe Elliott on quite a few songs. Ah, but the songs: that's where this album falls down on the job. While many of them are powered by hard-rocking riffs and bluesy grooves, not one of them is memorable once it's stopped playing. Which, come to think of it, is true of the majority of songs on any AC/DC album released in between Back in Black and Black Ice, too.