Like Kiss and The Rolling Stones getting it on in Bizarro-World, The Eagles Of Death Metal have created something basic, sexual, and thoroughly enjoyable. It’s greasy, sleazy, leather-coated stomp and tongue-in-cheek swagger is pretty striking when compared to Queens Of The Stone Age, the more famous band of drummer Josh Homme. If anything, it’s incredibly nice to know that the creative force behind a band that takes itself as seriously as QOTSA would willingly participate in a piece of pageantry as ridiculous as the Eagles Of Death Metal. It goes so far out of this world, and outside of any concept of hipness or cultural relevance, that it manages to not only sound pretty fresh, but completely serious, too.
Like all great parody, there’s serious talent behind the scenes. I could mention Jesse Hughes’ soaring guitar lines and solid blues composition skills, his testicle-twisting falsetto croon, or lyrics chock-full of cleverly obvious puns straight out of a Ron Jeremy flick. But, frankly, all you need to know is that Guns ‘N Roses kicked them off their tour after one show for being too irritating. Isn’t the fact that they piss off Axel Rose reason enough to like them?
It’s hard to sustain an album of cliches, even with the considerable talent of all musicians involved. At its slower moments, Heart On loses its pulse, and like one beer too many, sometimes it makes you feel heavy and sluggish. But there’s a charisma and joy that shines through Hughes’s and Homme’s showbiz grandstanding that’s infectious. It’s like a rock fairy tale told with anime; it’s all fun, with no pesky reality to get in the way.
In A Word: Mustache
