SIXX:AM - Prayers for the Damned (2016)

Sixx : AM is a trio founded in Los Angeles in 2007 by the bassist of Mötley Crüe, Nikki Sixx, the former Guns N 'Roses the guitar player DJ Ashba and James Michael. The band quickly released the masterpiece The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack and in 2011 This Is Gonna Hurt. In 2014, Modern Vintage comes out. It had to be a side project but when Mötley Crüe ends in 2015, Sixx : AM has become a real band. The band's trademark is a truly powerful and modern sound and songs very fit-in led by the voice of a great James Michael. It is efficience, incisive and extremely melodic at the same time.

In 2016, the band offers the Volume 1 of this Prayers for The Damned, including 11 songs. The Rise is representative of what Sixx: AM is. Beautiful voice of James Michael, faultless rhythm (Dustin Steinke on drums), the guitars of DJ Ashba are violent, melodic, his solo is held high, very worked, choirs are sublime and the chorus leaves us no respite. It rocks in our heads. And it's not over because You Have Come to the Right Place is even more of an insolent power. Huge guitars, a rhythm to burn paradise but still melodic. We never tire. I'm Sick somewhat slows the pace, led by master hand by a masterful Michael James, ubiquitous throughout the record. Prayers for the Damned is sublime. A masterpiece of melodic, to fit-in with an unstoppable chorus, chorus (almost religious) are accurate. The production of James Michael (the indispensable James Michael, the guru of the band) is an absolute power little known until then. In retaining violence. DJ Ashba's solo is short but highly technical. Better Man is a sublime mid-tempo proving if necessary all the unity and cohesion of the band. Another very elaborate song, nothing is left to chance. Listen Better Man and you will play it once, ten times, a hundred times. Large work once more of the former Guns N 'Roses DJ Ashba once again in a short but effective solo.

Click to watch the video of Rise

It restarts strongly with avery hard rock Can't Stop and its few synth lines and rhythmic of anabsolute power. The song style of James Michael varies from song to song, he is not confined within a single same singing style. Soft start in a Alice Cooper style for When We Were Gods and big guitars still on a rhythm that mister Cooper would not have denied. This is insicive, serious, Sixx: AM is a real band, an entity and not a money machine. It is true that one does not preclude the other.

Click to watch the video of You Have Come to the Right Place (live)

Big bass rhythm for Belly of the Beast and its hip drums then heavy choirs on this strange but well made song mixing several genres including hard rock, some hip hop and rap. DJ Ashba demonstrates one more time the extent of his guitar talent. Not unpleasant. Like Everything Went to Hell that does not slow the rhythm, however, we have no respite, the trio leaves us head underwater. It's nervous, quick, dry, anthems made to be play live. The Last Time (My Heart Will Hit the Ground) is a tone lower but the trio leaves his now recognizable paw. Rise of the Melancholy Empire ends magnificently a beautiful album. A song where the piano is dominant but DJ Ashba's guitar coming soon bludgeon us with its violence. A nostalgic song with a Muse's sound.

Click to watch the video of Better Man

Sixx: AM has now turned a corner, the compositions are good, the texts of James Michael are chiseled, sometimes double-edged, it's a real band where nobody highlights but everybody works for the good of group and the album. We therefore expect a Volume 2 forward and if the trio wants to play some concerts in France, it will be in no doubt welcome.