Bodyguerra: Invictus

Bodyguerra, or to give them their full name, Guido Stuecker’s Bodyguerra, return with both guitar player Stuecker and singer Ela Sturm still in place, but this time they are joined by the all new rhythm section of Robert Brenner on bass and Jason Steve Mageney on drums - and a pretty tight quartet they make. Now, it may the guitarist’s name that features (in titsy-totsy writing) on the cover but I’d say that in essence this album revolves around the vocals of Sturm just as much. Hailing from Germany you might expect this outfit, especially seeing as they feature an axe on the cover, to come from the school of Doro or Accept, but in all reality what’s going on here falls more into the hard rock landscape than it does the one made of metal.

The album opens with vocal emanations from Sturm that give off a Native American air, “Blood And Stones� then reminding more of George Lynch and his old band Dokken in the riff department. Admittedly the pace could maybe have been a little brisker and the breakdown that lands just before the chorus kind of loses focus but in general it’s a strong start. Unfortunately, those issues become a theme right across this album, elements of most of the songs really winning through, but the overall impact is of a set of songs that just lack a real spark. “Twilight� - another track that takes me into the world of George Lynch - begins with real bite but it’s an attack Sturm struggles to match, whereas “Confident Woman� powers into view with a bulging bluesy riff that gives off the self assuredness you might expect, but here the beat kind of drags and lacks for authority. And so it goes, the occasional guitar solo dropping the jaw, a few vocal performances proving what this singer can do right slap bang in her wheelhouse, but seldom if ever is the momentum maintained right across a whole song, never mind the whole album.

There’s not a single thing to dislike on Invictus, but then neither really is there anything that sticks in the mind. Pleasant while it lasts, what Bodyguerra have conjured up here is a case of very nearly but not quite.

Track Listing
1. Bloos And Stones
2. Troublemaker
3. Twilight
4. She Bob
5. Confident Woman
6. Devil’s Eye
7. I Stop Listening
8. Time Goes By
9. Too Late
10. C’Mon Tell Me
11. My Mother Told Me

Added: April 5th 2024
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Invictus @ bandcamp
Hits: 291
Language: english

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