Review by Felix on July 15, 2024.

You say The Scorpions do not have much in common with bands like Bunker 66? Ha, just look at the title of their current studio album and realize who used it at first. “Screaming Rock Believers” is almost ten years older and I am pretty sure that Klaus Meine still celebrates wild headbanging sessions at home with the second full-length of the Italians. Even more surprising is that Bunker 66 kick off the album with a cover song of Celtic Frost (nothing wrong so far). One of “Cold Lake” (wrong!), “Seduce Me Tonight” (absolutely wrong, isn’t it?!). I will come back to this kind of shock treatment later.

“Screaming Rock Believers” captivates through its well-hung coolness. The Italian trio finds the more or less perfect balance between casual, slightly punk-infused rock and speed / black / traditional metal aesthetics. It is not interested in high sophisticated song patterns, but their instinct tells the guys how to form pretty conventionally arranged tracks that never bore the listener. The vocalist supports this approach with a powerful, anti-social and in few moments almost theatrical voice (with a lot of reverb on it in songs like “Rulin’ Like a Tyrant”). If you listen closely, you can hear his humorous undertone from time to time. Many riffs hit the mark and provide the basic framework for an album that combines elegant lightness with a dirty street sound. Everybody can inhale the tracks immediately. They are not really earworms, but they catapult themselves in your brain with great ease and suggest that you should listen to them again right away.

Style-wise, the album is fully aligned with the other “full-lengths” of the three-piece who obviously see no sense in album with a playtime of more than 31,5 minutes. The finely balanced production underlines this style with its appropriate guitar sound which is full and vigorous but never as evil as hell. Thus, the right frame is set for fascinating pieces. Especially “Another Victim” and “Ghetto Dwellers” are great songs with the perfect dose of drive and momentum, but the partly stoically marching, partly rapidly approaching title track with its sinister bridge deserves applause as well. The further tracks are also good, just one iota less impressive than the trio that starts directly after the opener. Speaking of “Seduce Me Tonight”, I must say that I have to readjust my opinion about cover songs. I always thought that these tracks prove evidence that a band lacks creativity and / or self-confidence. But in the case of Bunker 66, the opener just shows that they are able to turn shit into gold. People who scream that the original is always better than the remake are either liars or they don’t know this whipping, fast-paced, bunkerized version of the Celtic Frost stinker. Klaus Meine is surely not among these dubious creatures. I have heard that he bangs his head against the wall whenever he listens to the opener of “Screaming Rock Believers”. And of course he does the same with the other songs.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10