• Poker Face Metal Cover

Well, I am feeling quite jubilant to be a part of Metalholic family and I wish the mag all the success for bringing legions of metal-heads under one roof and I sincerely believe our collective admiration for Metal would be highly instrumental in its' growth. 'Rock hard, ride free', keep the hard and heavy tunes blasting!'

Spinning a nefarious swath of thrash-y grind is Moscow's Pokerface, which last March released its sophomore full-length, Game On, under M & O Music. Comprised of ten variable razor-sharp lambastings totaling forty minutes, the Russians waste no time pinning the listener to the wall, er, wheel thanks to their high level of 'gain n' sustain' i.e. tightly woven guitar riffs which manage to avoid sounding 'samey' (a difficult task when it comes to this particular genre), backed by a fearsome, pummeling rhythm section and punctuated by a versatile, engaging front woman who alternates between throaty and guttural caws as well as cleaner and much less harsh traditional vocals. While the former 'singing' approach is rather androgynous, rest assured the latter is easily identifiable as feminine. In fact, on a few of the later tracks ('Creepy Guests' and 'Bow! Run! Scream!' for instance), the way she recklessly splatters her lines everywhere evokes a sticky female heavy metal version of 'Bobcat' Goldthwait of Police Academy fame but I digress. Her latent concise style could also be interpreted as a rougher, no-nonsense Jill Janus or Marta Gabriel. If anything, she certainly provides Pokerface with a singular identity. As well, such an expressive juggling act is a whole Hell of a lot more appealing than Arch Enemy's past femme fatale, Angela Gossow (though I can't comment or compare Lady Owl (Alexandra Orlova) to its new member, Alissa White-Gluz, as I haven't heard anything by the Swedes since Khaos Legions).
Interestingly, except for its twin gate-crashing openers - evil rollicker 'The Bone Reaper' and demoniacally cranky 'The Fatal Scythe' - as well as a pair of triple imperative commanders - 'Cry! Pray! Die!', 'Bow! Run! Scream!' - the tracks are titled after gambling concepts, which serves to increase Game On's thematic appeal and originality, The production is excellent as it allows each band member to fully contribute to the overall, menacing 'mise en scene'; panoramic leads, courtesy of the fiery, red-headed ax woman Xen Ritter alongside her fellow six-string minion Whitevad poignantly and at times, gracefully embellish each song without hogging the stage, as they do on 'Play or Die', but both players are certainly no stranger to outright explosive mayhem, such as throughout the radical, triplet imbued crunch fest which is 'Blackjack (Demonic 21)', on which evil, propelling harmonies and twisted grooves sinuously (and ominously!) pave the way for a downright raging and ebullient guitar solo which surely ups the ante. Between the harried shuffling and blast-beat laden 'Straight Flush' and killer, waspish riffing groove of closer 'Game On' proper (Lady Owl is at her most compelling here!) the battery consisting of bassist DedMoroz and drummer 'Doctor' (glad it's not 'Doktor'...) also unabashedly steps up its 'game' - dig the staggering fills and ride of 'Jackpot' or rumbling surround dominating the diabolically tremolo'ed 'Cry! Pray! Die!' and 'Creepy Guests'. Admittedly, the album sounds a little repetitive on first listen, yet upon delving further one easily discerns subtle nuances permeating the cumulative inferno at hand.
Aside from Lady Gaga demanding her staple back, it's a safe bet thrash - as well as death metal - fiends will wryly wear their game face for Russia's Pokerface.

Poker Face Metal Cover