Album Review: KROKUS - Big Rocks

01. N.I.B. (Black Sabbath)

02. Tie Your Mother Down (Queen)

03. My Generation (The Who)

04. Wild Thing (The Troggs)

05. The House Of The Rising Sun (The Animals)

06. Rockin' In The Free World (Neil Young)

07. Gimme Some Lovin' (The Spencer Davis Group)

08. Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin)

09. Summertime Blues (Eddie Cochran)

10. Born To Be Wild (Steppenwolf)

11. Quinn The Eskimo (Bob Dylan)

12. Jumpin' Jack Flash (The Rolling Stones)

13. Back Seat Rock 'N Roll (Krokus)

The veteran Swiss rockers are back with a covers album. Unfortunately, I can't see Big Rocks winning them any new fans. I get the impression that this record was made more for themselves than their audience, and they sound like they had a lot of fun making it.

My main issue with Big Rocks is the choice of songs. I'm sure these are all personal favourites of the band and each has some deep significant meaning to them, however I feel that these songs have all been done to death. If you see any generic Rock covers band in a pub in the UK, you can guarantee you'll hear a few of these. Does the world really need yet another version of My Generation or Wild Thing? Hells no!

To be fair, Krokus nail these covers. Their performance is flawless and the production is really good. I think the tracks that turned out best are Rockin' In The Free World, The House Of The Rising Sun and the re-recording of their own song Back Seat Rock 'N Roll which sounds more like Bon Scott era AC/DC than even Airbourne do. I don't understand the album's intro, which is just the riff from Black Sabbath's N.I.B played for just over a minute. It seems a little pointless, and was a bit disappointing as I was expecting to hear the song in its entirety.

Big Rocks is what it is. I can't really fault it as a release. I just wish there had been a more interesting choice of songs on there. Some wild cards. Some kind of unpredictable cover that would unexpectedly turn out to be pure genius. Alas not. However, if you haven't heard these songs a million times and aren't sick to death of them, this Krokus album should be on your shopping list.