Nowadays, it can sometimes be difficult to hear any difference between plain heavy metal and sleaze metal since the bands that usually use the word “sleaze” are now mostly influenced by the 00s hair metal revival from Northern Europe, rather than by 80s L.A. rock’n’roll. HOLEXPANDER is no exception, hailing from the North of France, they’re into high-pitched screams (“You Gonna Scream”, or “Never Enough” in which you can hear a mix of King Diamond and Rob Halford on vocals), big backing vocals/guitar solos, and heavy power guitar riffin’. You’ll also get the usual (and not so needed when there’s only 4 songs) heartbroken ballad (“Since You Left Me”), here actually closer to VELVET REVOLVER and the 90s grungy metal scene.
Honestly not bad in that style, the best moment to me being “All My Tears”, but definitely too heavy for me./Laurent C.
Veglam 