Breakin' Outta Hell - Airbourne

Oh hey, 100th blog post! Here's to another 100 over the next few years!
I've been looking forward to this album since I heard the title track (even though I had the same feeling about their last album and was ultimately disappointed). Apologies for the lack of album reviews recently but my aim is to write an average of one or two album reviews per month for the rest of the year.
Anyway, enjoy!

Before I start this review, I should begin by explaining my main problem with their last album (Black Dog Barking). It was an OK Hard Rock album but only if you listened to random tracks now and then as opposed to the whole collection as an album. I liked some of the songs off it but would only recommend buying those tracks instead of the album. Sadly, it's the exact same situation with Breakin' Outta Hell. There are a couple of brilliant songs in a sea of mediocrity. One of these stellar tracks is the album opener, title track and lead single, "Breakin' Outta Hell".
It has a great riff, an explosive mix and a true Hard Rock chorus designed to cause serious throat damage when you belt it out full volume at a live gig. Unfortunately, with the bar set so high, the rest of the album needed to deliver an equal amount of musical aggression and energy instead of slumping back into the foot-tapping Hard Rock that usually plagues Airbourne albums, this one included. Granted there are a few songs that up the tempo and deviate from the norm, such as frenzied rocker "Thin The Blood" and riff-based powerhouse "When I Drink I Go Crazy" (the latter seemingly inspired by the band's earlier material, which is always welcome in Rock), but they're few and far between.
The other album highlight is the album closer, "It's All For Rock N' Roll". It's a strong, anthematic love letter to Rock music although even that drops the ball by fading out at the end. However, it's more of a memorable track than any of the bland, basic 4/4 120-130 BPM songs that the band just fucking love to write ("Get Back Up" and "I'm Going To Hell For This"). The slower songs on the album make decent background music if you're driving or doing housework but the band have already given us three albums of plodding riffs and rhythms. The album cover, name and title track all suggested that they were going to take things further and challenge themselves by turning it up to 11 and releasing their heaviest album yet, especially since frontman Joel O'Keeffe has acknowledged that fans love faster tracks. Instead, it's just Airbourne being Airbourne.

If I had to single out the biggest change, it wouldn't be the heavier tracks; it'd be the lyrics. Airbourne have never really taken themselves seriously with their lyrics but there's something about these songs that just seem sillier than others. When I first read the tracklist, I thought it read like a Spinal Tap record ("Do Me Like You Do Yourself") only without them being a parody. I'm not saying the band have to write about politics or war but when you're listening to a proper band singing "When I was a boy, I played with my toy, every single day, ooh it was a joy", it removes you from the music. I would expect that kind of ridiculous line in something by The Darkness, not Airbourne.
Luckily, it's not all bad. The band have been influenced by the right sources, as some of the better songs have echoes of contemporary Hard Rock bands such as Audioslave and classics such as AC/DC about them ("Rivalry" and "It's Never Too Loud For Me", respectively). I'll admit that AC/DC is an easy comparison to make but in the same way Rush and Triumph are often compared for being Hard/Prog Rock power trios from Canada, you won't find a better band to compare AC/DC to than an Australian Hard Rock group who are making a career out of releasing the same album over and over again.
However, the main difference between AC/DC and Airbourne is that AC/DC were capable of releasing solid albums containing iconic Rock hits across different decades. Airbourne sound like they're already running out of fuel for entire records and their first album only came out nine years ago. This album needed more songs like "Never Been Rocked Like This", a track with a good riff and a slightly grittier edge. It's still Airbourne but it's not a carbon copy of 60% of their previous material. It might not be as awesome as the title track but it doesn't have to be; it's a great song and it sounds like it belongs on this album, if only to further enhance some of the more powerful tracks.

Overall, Breakin' Outta Hell will probably please fans of generic Hard Rock who want to stick this album on whilst occupying themselves with odd jobs around the house. It could've done with less songs about sex and more inspired by aggression or power like literally everything about the album suggested before you listened to it. If it was advertised as another plain old Airbourne album, I would've been a bit more understanding and probably praised it for the tracks I discussed.
Instead, it feels like they (or the record label/producer, probably) wanted to make people think it was something heavier to get more sales, so I give it a 5/10. It's OK, I didn't strongly dislike any of the songs but I was bored by quite a few of them. Buy this album if you loved any of Airbourne's previous albums and just want more of the same. Listen to the album if you like the band/genre and purchase the songs you really like individually. I imagine a tour promoting this album would be worth getting tickets for, as Airbourne strike me as a band who really bring the thunder live, but can't get it above a couple of flashes and a dull rumble in the studio.
Maybe album number five will be the one where they take a step forward with the asskicking...but it'll probably just be the same as the rest of them.