Steel Panther – Feel the Steel

08Jun09

They are lewd, crude, and tattooed: Steel Panther are a bunch of rock dudes from L.A. Every Monday night, they revive the near-extinguished glam metal genre down at the Key Club on Sunset Strip ’cause that’s where men are still men, except they sport ridiculous clothes and bad hair. Even P!nk and Kelly Clarckson were seen at their gigs, which is a surprise as Steel Panther’s message is crystal clear: Death To All But Metal.

Yes, it’s the 80s all over again, when proud poseurs like Motley Crue and Cinderella competed over the most processed guitar sounds, the blondest groupies, and the smallest brains. Steel Panther’s debut platter, Feel The Steel is hair metal at its crudest, featuring guitar histrionics aplenty and tunes such as Eatin’ Ain’t Cheatin’, Community Property, and Stripper Girl. Most songs are about encounters with groupies, a subject usually reserved for a metal band’s second album – but Steel Panther simply skipped the first.

The album harks back to a time when guys who looked like transvestite hookers paradoxically put the chauvinistic spirit of the Reagan era to music like no one else. But Steel Panther have no time for cultural analysis: their look back is best summed up in their motto “we f****d your mom in the 80s”. It’s a one-joke band that’s not gonna last, so Feel The Steel now or never.