Written By Kevin McSweeney
Vulvarine, the “…rock gang from Vienna, Austria,” with “…distinct feminist values … inspired by women, and inspiring other women”, are back with a new album of their own brand of “vulvarock”, which is, according to their website: “…raw punk meets heavy metal and high energy rock ‘n’ roll … energetic, dramatic, and most of all: empowering.” So, with all that in mind, Metal Lair thought: who better to review a feminist rock album than a fat, balding, middle-aged incel? So they gave the honour to me!
Fast Lane is their third release, following their debut album Unleashed (2020), and the Witches Brew EP (2023), and the nomenclature is not for nothing. The first track starts as speedily as Niki Lauda at the Österreichring, as a brief snare drum roll brings us straight into The Drugs, The Love and the Pain, a high-octane opener full of bluesy licks and flailing sticks. An accomplished guitar solo leads us to a brief break from the intensity, in the form of a reggae-style middle-eight with a syncopated beat and some lead guitar that sounds almost like Oasis, before returning us to the power and energy of the chorus to close. It’s a barnstorming beginning to proceedings!
Ancient Soul follows hot on its heels, with traditional metal lead guitar and some tasty harmonics over pounding Enter Sandman-style toms, before opening up into a pummeling, mid-paced rocker with a strong, four-chord chorus and a solo of which Slash would be justifiably proud. Very notable is the vocal performance of Suzy Q, who remains a singer at all times, eschewing shouting or screaming, irrespective of the level of ferocity in the song. In doing so, she exudes a sense of assured, almost insouciant cool throughout. Even at their most frenetic, the band never fully sacrifices melody for the sake of intensity.
Heads Held High is the third track on the album. It’s a vibrant number full of major chords and heavy crash cymbals, with a bold, anthemic chorus that must work very well live. It is perhaps on this song more than any other that the comparisons with a band like The Donnas are most apposite. They veer more into metal territory on Demons, with palm-muted riffs and double-kick drumming starting to rear their heads. I referenced Enter Sandman earlier, and the talk of monsters under the bed and demons in your head in the chorus evokes the Metallica classic once again. I particularly enjoyed the way they switched the chorus from 4/4 to 6/8 time towards the end, and the screaming feedback is left to ring out at the conclusion of the song to great effect.
Alright Tonight commences with a slick bass line and tight eighth notes on the hi-hat from Robin Redbreast and Bea Heartbeat respectively. The song is somewhat reminiscent of early 2000s Green Day. In fact, I could almost imagine Billie Joe Armstrong singing it, though the lavish harmonies over the tribal rhythm in the middle are of a higher vocal quality than you’d get from the legendary Californian trio.
The next two tracks, Equal, Not The Same and Fool, both have recent accompanying videos and understandably so. They are the strongest songs on the album, with the catchiest hooks. It’s also where they assert their feminist ethos most prominently, and the influence of the Riot Grrrl bands of the 1990s, such as Bikini Kill and Babes in Toyland, that they cite on their website, become most evident. The former is them at their most punky, and sees them railing against domineering men. It features a sumptuous solo that again brings Slash to mind. The latter reminds me a little of Shania Twain’s That Don’t Impress Me Much in its delivery, as a thoroughly disapproving Suzy Q subjects to excoriating censure a man who is clearly less impressive than he assumes himself to be. They might be an Austrian band, but there is something distinctly British about the scathing epithet “you bloody fool!” uttered so disdainfully in the chorus.
Polly The Trucker sounds like the title of a sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, but it’s actually a moderately fast shuffler akin to the aforementioned Green Day’s Holiday – that is until you get to the chorus where the tempo is halved and those lavish harmonies shine through once more, and a peach of a guitar solo and some palm-muted riffing later on bring their metal credentials again to the fore.
Things take a gothic turn on Dark Red, a song that tells of a dalliance with a demonic lover that could almost have come from the pen of Peter Steele, had it been about seven minutes longer, and more melodramatic and darkly comical in approach. Musically, it’s more akin to the English gothic rock bands of the late 1980s that verged on metal, such as The Cult and The Mission. It’s somewhat incongruous with the rest of the album in terms of tone, but that’s no bad thing. Once again, the guitar solo is impressive.
The band are joined by Filippa Nässil of Thundermother, with whom they have toured Europe recently, for their cover of the Modern Talking song Cheri Cheri Lady. It’s a fast, punky take on the song, though the metal credentials manifest themselves again in the chorus when the tempo is halved and the double kicks come into play – further augmented and enhanced by the bonging bell in the middle eight, evoking Metallica, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and many others who have utilised it to great effect.
Matters are brought to a close with She’ll Come Around, a short song performed minus the rhythm section, and with a crackling sound on the recording that makes it sound almost as if it were played beside a campfire. It’s similar to the initial stages of Hole’s Violet, and lyrically is from the perspective of a neglectful beau who pushes his luck too far. It’s a strong closing song; I wish it were longer.
Overall, it’s a good album, and a much more cohesive collection of songs than you tend to get in this TikTok/Snapchat-inspired era of short attention spans. Many of the songs are catchy and commercially viable enough to garner mainstream success. I could imagine them being played on major radio stations, though the name Vulvarine is bound to be something of a stumbling block in that regard. It’s appealing enough to those of us with a penchant for the pudendum and a nostalgic fondness for a certain adamantium-enhanced X-Man, and who therefore can’t resist a portmanteau comprising the two. However, it’s bound to provoke frenzied pearl clutching in certain quarters, thus hampering their chances of further exposure. But for those of us of a less sensitive disposition, we have a strong album to savour, full of power, passion, progressive politics and hooks the size of Wolverine’s claws.
I give this album 4 out of 5 devil horns
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Fast LaneTracklisting:
1. The Drugs, The Love and The Pain (3:03)
2. Ancient Soul (3:53)
3. Heads Held High (3:45)
4. Demons (4:18)
5. Alright Tonight (3:44)
6. Equal, Not The Same (3:26)
7. Fool (2:27)
8. Polly The Trucker (4:25)
9. Dark Red (4:07)
10. Cheri Cheri Lady (3:34)
11. She’ll Come Around (1:48)
Vulvarine Lineup:
Suzy Q – Vocals
Sandy Dee – Guitar
Robin RedBreast – Bass
Bea Heartbeat – Drums
Vulvarine Are Currently On Tour. Find Tour Dates Near you.
