Album Review: The Datsuns - Death Rattle Boogie

Rock has never come and gone – it will outlive us all – but there are ebbs and flows. The Datsuns know this all too well. So many bands that unwittingly caught the tsunami-level wave of rock adulation in the early '00s have fallen by the wayside, yet the New Zealand four-piece are still doing their thing. The funny thing is that, despite the last few years seeing another resurgence in the love of rock, The Datsuns' fifth album Death Rattle Boogie sounds both prescient and dated.

Nothing over the course of these 14 tracks are likely to slap you across the face in terms of ingenuity or about-turn flights of genre-specific fancy, nor is it likely to get the blood boiling for some straight-ahead guitar crunch anthems. It sounds pretty much like the last four Datsuns records. Lead wailer Dolf de Borst's vocals have slowly stepped back and, while not crooning or coasting, they aren't the arresting blasts of throwback, throat shredding abandon they were in the past. And while some of the song titles (Gods Are Bored, Skull Full Of Bone) and Death Rattle Boogie itself sound heavy, the tracks remain safe endeavours for the most part.

Still, there be gold in them thar hills – the aforementioned Skull Full Of Bone is vintage groove-laden magic, while the psych tinges of Shadow Looms Large threatens to be the best thing they have ever written. The band is incredibly tight too, not having lost any of the bluster and swagger that has always made their live shows such highlights. Still, Death Rattle Boogie comes off as more of a pastiche of times gone by, with some post-millennial touchstones rather than anything of lasting merit.