Rock 'n' Roll Disease

I have to say right off the bat that the U.S. and European cover art SUCKS! It's some lame negative of a band picture but it just turned out shitty. Actually the whole package is cheap and shitty. Oh well.....but how is the music?

Well I will be blunt and say that the Cronos's second solo album isn't as good as his debut Dancing in the Fire but it is still entertaining in its own right.

The major difference between this album and Cronos's debut is that it sounds a little rawer. The guitars are more raw and the bass is nice in sloppy like good 'ol Venom of old. The album as a whole is far less polished and commercial sounding. The first track Messages of War is a killer. Faster and more aggressive than any Cronos song before. That title track that follows actually is passable and the chorus grows old fast. Midnight Eye is also a track that the skip button was made for. It's just slow and forgettable

With Lost and Found we get back to the rawness and I like this song second best to the album opener. The Venom sounding bass is really evident on this catchy track. Love is Infectous is another heavy catchy song

Sexploitation doesn't live up to its "clever" name. Cronos's "singing" vocals just ruin this song here. Ouch....he just doesn't sing as good here as on Dancing in the Fire.

Superpower is a step back on track and so is Aphrodisiac. Sweet Savage Sex is another passable song. Cronos...get off the subject of sex....you songs on the subject just aren't that good! Bared to the Bone is another song ruined by Cronos trying to sing....ug. The album ends with a lousy instrumental.

I dug the new rawness but overall I felt that less effort went into this album. Cronos on his debut had something to prove that he could exist out of Venom but here he is kind-of on auto-pilot knowing his fans will sure to buy it no matter how it turned out. It's got some really good songs but roughly half of the songs are passable to poor, ala skip button worthy.

"Rock and Roll Disease" is the second album by Cronos, the band spawned from the ashes of the "Calm Before the Storm"-era Venom. The second album basically picks up where the first one ("Dancing in the Fire") left off; that is, it's thrash/powerish metal with some mainstream elements (easily digestible riffing/song structures, vocal melodies, hook-y choruses), but there are a few heavier moments as well (the album's opener, "Messages of War", is dare I say heavier than most of Venom's back catalog). Much like the first album as well, it's disappointing if you're hoping for more of that old Venom magic, but if you're just out for some catchy, powerful-and-kinda-thrashy heavy metal then you'll dig this album.

(Originally published at LARM (c) 1999)