Andy And The Rockets - 'Casino'

Rock Metal Machine
2 hours ago
2 min read

But… you’ll be damned if you hear much else with this much ear invading staying power for a while.

A man in a tuxedo fans a deck of cards in a casino setting with cityscape background. Text: "ANDY AND THE ROCKETS CASINO." Mood: elegant.

Are you ready to roll the dice with Andy And The Rockets? The Swedish melodic afficionados follow up their spotlight garnering 2023 full-length ‘Incognito’ with ‘Casino’, looking to come up big again with their brand of all-out Hard Rock. So how do the cards fall this time around?

Contrary to the title, there’s little in the way of a gamble here. If your neck isn’t bopped-out after a solid forty minutes, then the band have forgotten their MO. Across the board it’s melodic roots with Modern Rock suits. Opener ‘I’m Alive’ rips into anthemic tempo straight off the mark; big on riffs, and not short of AOR razzle-dazzle. Meanwhile, ‘Creatures Of The Dark’ and ‘Dirty Love’ capture almost every eighties’ Rock hallmark possible between them; a one-two punch that feels like the flag anyone in a leather vest with no shirt would salute.

There are some spins on the roulette wheel, too. A third slot ballad would have most guessing at a soft touch, but ‘Casino’ has some surprising heart. Between ‘I’ll Die If You’re Done’ and ‘In From The Cold’, there’s passion to match big-top production. There’s an ABBA tinge to the mathematically catchy ‘Your Touch Is Too Much’, while ‘The Devil And The Indian Scout’ harks back to the band’s Rockabilly era, proving neither Andy or the Rockets forgot where their sonic journey started.

So, what’s the rub? At its core, it’s inconsistency. The soaring, Stadium Rock chorus of ‘Cyanide’ is full of pomp and power, but errs the wrong side of the trope line into generic territory, despite its ambitions of a chant-along anthem. Conversely, ‘Seven Years Of Bleeding’, in trying it’s hardest to maintain a rough edge in a sea of polished hits, winds up with a little too much chug for its own good. Andy And The Rockets know how to bring down the house, but ‘Casino’s stuttering steps prevent it from becoming a true wrecking ball.

Here's your risk-free guarantee going into ‘Casino’; you’re getting a huge amount of ultra catchy Melodic Rock, check. It doesn’t prompt great amounts of discussion outside of “this is going to be stuck in my head for weeks” track-to-track, and a few duff hands curtail going all in. But… you’ll be damned if you hear much else with this much ear invading staying power for a while.