Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
When a city dies, when it crumbles into dust and powdered filth, it takes on the spectral and the ghost like white shade of a vampire being shown the first chinks of dawn; the vampire and the dead city, the kind of allusion to which only the last person alive can understand when all around them is the tattered remains of a faded and one beautiful glory.
The world is full of such places, some forgotten in ancient history, several only too fresh in the mind, a few having been pulled back from the depths of Government disinterest and offering a salvation, some, like Detroit, a growing graveyard of rusting metal and obsolete dreams; the City of Decay now only a place where dystopian inspiration gathers pace.
Roadhouse’s interest in the crumbling edifice of the once proud American dream is simple, it is the stark reminder that music and life are so intertwined that without either being heard, the merry laugh of a happy child, the guitar solo that brings home memories of a first dynamic kiss, then there is no life, there is no hope.
Rust is in the air in Detroit, but the hope and ambition of a band really getting underneath the skin of their fans lives long and is multiplying with each lengthy stride, each mile placed down upon the road, by the tremendous Roadhouse. This is a group of musicians to whom Rust and decay are but words to be found in a dictionary or in the emotional feeling towards the system that has allowed a once thriving and forceful city to die, to be long past it could be argued, the possibility of resurrection.
The vocals of Sarah Harvey-Smart and Mandie G draw confidence, illustrate a stunning intensity in depth that is impossible to ignore and one that captivates the listener into wanting more, to feel the engine of the band rev and roar like a Mustang, it is a feeling that the band are happy to offer.
With tracks such as King Of The Streets, Midnight Rain, the excellent Queen of the Mountain and the superb album title track, City of Decay, hanging in the air, this is an album built on strength and muscle and it is one that understands completely just what it means to have hope, even when all around you is coming apart, the engine stalling and the gas having run out; City of Decay is a force of nature that will not pause and purrs along with thunder in its heart.
Ian D. Hall