Let's get it out of the way: yes,
Rhino Bucket still sound almost exactly like
AC/DC. They've even got the Aussies' former drummer, Simon Wright, back on drums (he also appeared on the band's 1994 disc Pain). For this, their fifth release and second since reuniting in 2001, they've brought in new guitarist Brian Forsythe, formerly of Maryland pop-metallers
Kix. He's a talented player, but when your job description reads "sound as much like Angus Young as possible," it's hard to put your own stamp on the music. Still, he manages, throwing a little extra hard-blues feel into the mix, coming across like a cross between Young and
ZZ Top's
Billy Gibbons at times. Frontman Georg Dolivo sounds a lot like
Bon Scott, but he's not a clone; his voice has coarsened with age, putting him in territory closer to
Def Leppard's Joe Elliott on quite a few songs. Ah, but the songs: that's where this album falls down on the job. While many of them are powered by hard-rocking riffs and bluesy grooves, not one of them is memorable once it's stopped playing. Which, come to think of it, is true of the majority of songs on any
AC/DC album released in between
Back in Black and
Black Ice, too. ~ Phil Freeman