Sammy Hagar. Lemmy. Dave Davies. Reg Presley. It seems having a close encounter has been the ass-probe of death in rock career terms. But Awolnation, the hook-heavy synth rock collaboration of Aaron Bruno from Under The Influence Of Giants and Blind Melon’s Christopher Thorn, are bucking the anti-Spock rock trend.
They’ve got one single about UFO abduction and one with a video featuring an alien snow monster into the US Alternative top five, and made a rather cracking debut album full of death-ray pop hits.
Megalithic Symphony succeeds by making a positive of its esoteric oddity, shamelessly coming on by turns like a malfunctioning android Hall & Oates (Guilty Filthy Soul), a goth Linkin Park (Soul Wars), an electro pop-metal Beatlemania (Burn it Down), a torch ballad by the winner of the Venusian X-Factor (All I Need) and a mutant amalgam of Pendulum and Len (Wake Up).
Then it crams about six songs into the 10-minute pop epic closer Knights Of Shame, like Muse if they gave a toss about playlists. Beam ’em up.
