Lokomotiv - Rock N Roll Death Toll

Lokomotiv - Rock N Roll Death Toll
Year : 2006

Track Listing
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1. House Of Lies
2. Ride With Me
3. State Of Mind
4. Ashes Of Home
5. Innert Passerby
6. Slow Grind
7. Anthrmthrfuckr
8. Heart In Twor
9. Five Alive
10. Madre Salvacion

The Train has been derailed.

“Chugga-Chugga-Whoot-Whoot”

“The train is-a-commmin!!!”



Locomotive….. just the name evokes images of power, strength and speed. But wikepedia defines a locomotive as “a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train, and has no payload capacity of its own; its sole purpose is to move the train along the tracks.” Take a closer look at the last 2 lines and you’ll have a pretty good idea what this band is all about..

Now take the same name, change the “C’” to a “K” and then take out the “E” and now we have a band that won’t be joining the next spelling bee contest anytime in the near future.

Lokomotiv is a So. California band from Orange County made up of members from the two biggest rock groups from the Philippines: Wolfgang & Razorback. Hmmm now your thinking to yourself…. “Wolfgang plus Razorback, minus Louie Talan, divided by egos, carry Basti Artadi, remainder 1, take out Manuel Legarda, add David Aguirre, multiply that by Leslie, sorry I mean WOLF and add a mexican gut that can play a mean mariachi, and what do you have? A SUPERGROUP!!!

Far from it. SUPER didn’t exactly happen with this group. Trying so hard to distance themselves from the sound of their previous bands that they made a new sound of their own. If i may quote my fellow PBG member T-Bag, he coined it : "WHITE-TRASH-CABARET-DUMP-ROCK-N-ROLL!!!" And Basti knew it too that’s why he left. Which is a good move. Who wants to be remembered as a rusty piece of machinery from the 1900’s?

…. has no payload capacity of its own….

Wikepedia defines payload as “the valuable contents of the vehicle”

Now don’t get me wrong, this album contains monstrous guitar riffs, blazing solos, pounding bass lines and hard-rockin’ drums. All valuable to make a heavy rock album. But those contents won’t make a good record. With all the strength and power of the instruments blasting in your face, the songs really suffered on this album. For some reason Basti can’t seem to make the lyrics fit with the music. To the point where some of his lyrics sound like B-sides of Wolfgang songs. His lyrics here just fail in comparison to what he used to write.

“You wanna ride?
Door’s open, won’t you come on up inside?
You wanna die?
Door’s open, come on sit right by my side”

Even his voice sounds like it’s forced. Like his telling himself to like the song but you can tell that his heart is just not in it. Just listen to Slow Grind where he’s yelling “I’m reckoning” on the top his lungs! There is despair. But not despair in where he is trying to show desperation, but despair as in “Get me out of this band, I rather sell houses!!!” And with songs titles like “ANTHRMTHRFUCKR” and “House Of Lies” you know he wants to get off the train.

Even with a talent like David Aguirre on the guitars, RNRDT is still failed to make an impact on my ears. His guitar riffs sounds like he’s just wanking off. Not to mention there’s nothing really new to what he’s doing. They’re guitar riffs inspired by glam metal bands from the 70’s and 80’s with no real intention in coming up with anything original and inspiring. Boring is an understatement.

And now for the bottom end… What? There’s a bottom end? Yup. Danny on bass and Leslie Gemora on drums. With all that wanking that David was doing, the bass sure took a backseat. He just wanted guitars, guitars and guitars on every song. And the drums sound like it’s following the guitar’s tempo instead of the other way around. That or maybe Leslie just sucks at drumming. Maybe that’s why he changed his name to Wolf to make it seem like he can play the drums. But I digress. I think here is what’s lacking in this album. The payload. The songs. The most valuable item of an album. All “chugga-chugga” and no “woot-woot”.

…. its sole purpose is to move the train along the tracks ….

And just as a locomotive has to stay on the tracks to get to wherever it’s going, this album pretty much did the same thing. They stayed on track. One track. No seaside or ocean views. No detours. No twists or turns. No stops. Just one straight track. I’m sure with a name like Lokomotiv, it’s understandable that their plan was to make an album of straight in-your-face-cock-rock. But herein lies their weakness also. Even Wolfgang had a ballad or two in their albums to give the listener some breathing room. Just imagine sitting on a train with a barren desert wasteland as your view. Although you know you’re moving at high speeds your excitement will diminish once you get used to it. Same thing happens when you are listening to RNRDT. One guitar tone, one tempo, one of everything. And once you realize those riffs are not what it’s cracked up to be, you’re pretty much going to zone out and look for other things to do. Did they actually think that what they were doing was sooo original that they had to use the same formula for every song? Sorry but it’s just too much of the same thing. Still don't know understand what I'm trying to say? Try fucking your girlfriend for 10 mins (if you can even last that long) in the same position and at the same speed. See if she doesn't complain of burning and boredom!

But with any long trip the best part is always when you’re about to reach your destination. When you start to see what looks like a town from the horizon. And you start to see trees and people. And you know you can finally relax and stretch your legs. Take a breather. The same can be said with the last song on this album. “Madre Salvacion”. The only track that actually made me listen. This has got to be the only song that Basti was inspired to write. Since he’s writing about leaving the band! Just take a look at the lyrics!!!

“Someone’s gonna die/ And be reborn”
“Come on, save me senorita/ From this hell that I’ve come to know”
“Then he’ll know what path to take and where he should begin”
“Oh Lord in heaven this is my final call/Oh Lord in heaven this is my final fall”

Wolf asks “Get In or Get Out Of The Way” – I think I choose the latter. This train is going nowhere anyways.

My Final Rating:
A - for it’s A train wreck. LOLZ.