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Rogue Male > First Visit > Reviews
Rogue Male - First Visit

I Want Your Clothes, Your Boots, & Your High School Yearbook Photo - 46%

Tanuki, February 17th, 2017

I'm tempted to say First Visit is a love-letter to Motörhead, but the effort and subtlety makes it seem more like a Snapchat nude with an eggplant subtitle. In an attempt to curry favor with both Motörhead and their army of fans, Rogue Male serves up a greasy plate of rock 'n' roll with a side of burbling basslines.

In stark accordance with their Motörhead worship, vocalist Jim Lyttle attempts to emulate the grizzled pipes of Lemmy with each and every syllable. Most evident in the faster-paced tracks like 'Crazy Motorcycle', Lyttle's blue collar croak is perhaps a semitone or so higher than the kill-master, yet he still delivers his Bomber fan-fiction with decent confidence. To view Rogue Male's lack of creativity optimistically, this makes First Visit simply more of a good thing. After all, who doesn't like Motörhead? Pessimistically, this album can barely compete with the more memorable and better-produced tracks of Bomber, much less bring anything new to the table in the hopes of being viewed as superior.

Mostly I pin blame on the lax nature of the fretwork. I realize that bulked-up simplicity is a major mantra of speed metal, but 'Look Out' is very close to boasting one solitary riff, altered only slightly when the solo begins. Solos, an exercise in indolence themselves, are brisk and frankly a little sloppy for my taste, much like the ones found in my least favorite Motörhead album Iron Fist. 'All Over You' is an exception, treating the listener to some high-reaching blues licks, but these moments are few and far between. Purely on its own merit, First Visit should suit most NWOBHM enthusiasts just fine, but for those with a more refined palette, best to stick with your tried and true recipes.

Look out! Rogue Male are about! - 87%

Beerhammer, May 6th, 2009

Rogue Male should have been huge. Or if not huge they should at least have a much bigger cult following than they do. Even with this record getting a limited cd reissue from Metal Mind this band will probably still remain largely unappreciated. Dumb luck dictates that some great music will fall on deaf ears.

Dumb luck is also how I discovered this record. I rescued it from a $1 bin based mostly on the fact that it was on Music for Nation in '85 and that it had possibly the ugliest album art I have ever seen: a cartoon android with a mullet?! Well, maybe it gets a few point for looking a bit like the creepazoid from "Future-Kill" but I can't imagine that the band was doing themselves any favors with that cover. I was suprised how good the record turned out to be in spite of the questionable wrapping.

Musically, Rogue Male has a pretty unique sound, but one that probably doomed them from the start. It is somehow both stripped down and slickly produced, making it fall into the gray area between NWOBHM and commercial hard rock. There is a synthetic feel to the whole record that seems intentional but also an undeniable no-bullshit metal swagger as well. It's kind of reverse android: real flesh and blood under a mechanized veneer. The drums have that distinctly 80's gated snare sound and generally stick to a simple (almost dancy) beat, the guitars sound kind of canned but the songs are still hard-driving and Jim Lyttle's vocals are raspy and full of personality.

Probably the easiest way of describing "First Visit" is saying that it sounds like W.A.S.P. and Motorhead as filtered through Judas Priest's "Turbo" record. It shares W.A.S.P.'s knack for catchy and vulgar hooks, Motorhead's less-is-more philosophy and propulsion, and "Turbo"'s crowd-pleasing plasticness. Overall it is a strange sound that is probably a love it or hate it proposition for most.

Opening track "Crazy Motorcycle" is the best example of the formula above: imagine "Bomber" dressed up in "Turbo Lover" drag and you pretty much got this song. "All Over You" features the line in the chorus "I'm going to shoot my load all over you" but is probably the catchiest song record. "Get Off My Back" and "On the Line" are both first-class rockers.

There are a few things that prevent this from being an absolute classic. One is obviously the extremely dated production, although that in some ways adds to the retro-futurist fun of the record. A couple of the songs are solid but not stellar (the first two on the second side, "Dressed Incognito" and "Unemployment", don't blow me away). And despite the comparisons above Rogue Male doesn't completely surpass any of the above bands on their on terms. They aren't as much of a juggernaut as Motorhead, they're not as sleazy as W.A.S.P., and they do not have the skills of Priest-- especially in Jim Lyttle's vocals, which have attitude to spare but nowhere near Halford's range (or even Blackie's for that matter).

So here you get a strong B-grade record, well above average with two or three absolutely killer songs and unique vibe. It may not be completely aces but this record deserves to be heard by any lovers of 80s metal.