THE REBELHEARTS - Chameleon Viper CD-EP

The Rebelhearts are Dundee's metal power-trio - and they are improving in leaps and bounds, the evidence of which can be heard on this debut EP. Opening with the title track, you get a thoroughly heavy river of steaming electric guitar leads and riffs, totally in keeping with many a seventies Classic Rock vein, and hints of Black Sabbath-meets-Scorpions-meets-Fastway rifling through the two and a half minute rampage where the rhythm section thunders along, the vocals are spat out and sung well while this typhoon of guitar work provides the meat on the bones with a fiery quality to the riffing and a searing heat to the soloing, so solid and so good that you wished it could have lasted twice as long. "Strip Bar" also erupts into life on a steaming set of guitar riffs, this time in conjunction with the rhythm section, preferring a battering ram approach as the vocals tell the story, spewing out the lyrics over this churning, adrenaline-fuelled elctric guitar rampage, decidedly rock-metal and totally solid, another searing heat guitar solo lighting the way as the song takes no prisoners, ending in a blitz of metal guitar attack. "The Heist" is slightly slower and more anthemic, although still founded on a powerful sea of stuttering riffing and urgent rhythm section work, as the song provides something approaching a memorable hook and then thunders into this adrenaline-rush of a mid section before the song returtns and it all races forward as though the devil were on its tail, a fine slice of metal that really works, and in song terms, easily the best thing on here so far, memorable, heavy and commercial all in one steaming whole. "Wild Night" actually increases the pace from anything before, but still comes across as a slice of surging metal action, the song delivered with venom, as the riffs and rhythms power their way through rock heaven, not as catchy as the rest, but every bit as jaw-dropping as a Marino-esque guitar solo flies into view. A fifth track, "Rock Star" is a "bonus" track and every bit the driving pedal-to-the-metal, '70's-esque surge of blistering Classic Rock, the slightly out-of-focus vocal swerving and sliding over the backing of wild-life riffing and hard-rock rhythms, two minutes of on-fire rawk 'n' rolllllll.
Overall, 5 tracks that prove that this band have got a purpose in this life, that in metal terms they are becoming a force to be reckoned with and that, in their guitarist and vocalist on CD, and as charismatic a rock guitar god frontman as they come in concert, they have someone capable of steering this band onwards and upwards.

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