Bavaria’s STREET JUSTICE have made their debut album, Rules Are For Suckers, available to hear in full through the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal (NWOTHM) YouTube channel. The nine-track record is set for international release on October 23 through Dying Victims Productions, introducing the band formed by former SAVAGE members Pawel Nemkovic and Axel Warrior.
The pair started STREET JUSTICE following SAVAGE’s breakup. Their previous band released an EP and the Dying Victims debut album Glory Riders; the new project carries forward their commitment to heavy metal while, according to the announcement distributed by Suspicious Activities PR, expanding the variety of its riffs, leads and hooks.
The announcement places Rules Are For Suckers in the lineage of 1980s Los Angeles metal and hard rock, citing classic W.A.S.P., TWISTED SISTER, QUIET RIOT and early VAN HALEN. It also describes a stronger sleaze element than in SAVAGE, drawing a comparison to a heavier version of late-1980s L.A. GUNS. Those references frame the band’s stated direction rather than a departure from its members’ earlier work.
Among the album’s nine songs is a cover of Tina Turner’s “One of the Living,” from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. The press announcement connects that choice to a wasteland theme running through the record, describing the arrangement as a heavier treatment of the original. Its imagery also informs the source’s account of the album’s open atmosphere and riffing.
STREET JUSTICE collaborated with producer Sergej Dukart of TYRAN on the record. The announcement credits that partnership with developing the clarity and depth of what it calls the band’s “spacious heaviness.”
The recording and current lineup feature different drummers. Tobias Kasper of SWEEPING DEATH recorded the album’s drum tracks before Marcel Riedel of SURTURIAN joined STREET JUSTICE as their permanent drummer.
The running order is “S.C.R.E.W.,” “Lethal Strike,” “One of the Living” (Tina Turner cover), “Call of the Gypsy,” “This is My Boomstick (Pt. I),” “Tokyo Subway Molester,” “Under My Wheels,” “This Time (But For Real)” and “Gutter Cat Love.”