Steel Panther -On The Prowl

For the past fifteen years Steel Panther has made a career out of being a comedy rock metal band whose songs have risqué lyrics that reflect the stereotypical lifestyle of rock groups, most notably the American metal acts from the mid-eighties.

If you are old enough to remember the Spinal Tap film which took a similar course to the one Steel Panther plough, this might seem like you have heard and seen it all before.

With the release of this their sixth album you begin to wonder if the joke is starting to wear a bit thin. It should be but when Steel Panther produce splendid rock songs as featured here there is still plenty of fuel left in their tank.

Most of the songs on this cracking album could be big songs for the groups they send up.

Never Too Late comes with a mean guitar riff that has a barbed wire edge whilst on 1987 the lyric is more pertinent than their usual fare as lead singer Michael Starr sings “the music that we worshipped will live on, even after all our heavy metal heroes are gone.”

On Your Instagram and Teleporter keep the flag flying for classic rock. If they decided to drop the racy lyrics Steel Panther would gain more radio airplay and become even bigger than they already are, then again maybe the band would not be as funny.

For now, their songs remain as snappy and spicy as ever.