With PR material heralding tales of Sunset Strip influence, this Lisbon/Portuguese band present a nicely packaged digi EP containing 5 tracks, one of which is a Beatles cover. The style is typical, a little messy, whilst the ideas are there, the execution, mainly from the vocals, is slightly stagnated.

The first couple of tracks are nice, pretty standard hard rock 80’s style but it’s not until ‘Shotgun Marriage’ I feel their wings are released and only then do the chains smash free and there’s more life in the music. It’s now sounds free flowing. ‘The Hitcher’ is also a well-respected tune. The cover tune ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ is quite funny as it’s a tune I used to cover in my youth converted for a similar style, probably the easiest and most apt tunes to convert to a Sunset Strip style rampage. Speaking of which, I find more influence from Scandinavia via Hanoi Rocks rather than some of the bands spearheaded in the PR material however a second tier of LA bands would certainly gel more with this EP.

I enjoyed this release, I’ve played it a lot and nodded in sync with all the tracks but it simply doesn’t have enough to be individual and sounds like a tribute to previous artists. I am sure it’s going to be a different experience live, ‘Neon Gods’ is enjoyable overall but it’s not a release that stands out and grabs you.

(6/10 Paul Maddison)

https://www.facebook.com/affairerocks