Roger DeCarlo: Press

CRUELLA - VENGEANCE IS MINE / SHOCK THE WORLD

USA RECORDS METAL TO INFINITY

The band Cruella recorded their debut album in 1987, and released it on the Crazy Life Music label from Germany in 1989. Title of that album was ''Vengeance Is Mine'', and featured 9 tracks of typical U.S. Metal. The first track on 'Vengeance Is Mine' starts with a screaming guitar and the track 'In Time/Beyond Belief' give you a perfect idea on what's to come. Furious, well played metal with a lot of hooks and breaks and above all, the typical U.S. Metal vocals from Rick Nolen.

The songs breathe a kind of Nasty Savage attitude, and the good old times are vivid all the way! Take a listen to the second track 'Bat's Breath', and you will get more screaming and yelling guitars that seems to be molested. After 1 minute, all hell breaks loose with a killer break and what follows next is a real shredding guitar solo. Just perfect!!!! The vocals get into the song again, and everything is slowing down a bit, to burst out for a second time with another brilliant guitar solo. This was the Metallica era, and the solos that you get from Cruella are just as cool as those that Kirk used to play at the 'Kill 'Em All' album... This is exactly how this album continuous, so it's a pleasure to revive and regenerate those good old times.

The album ''Vengeance Is Mine'' got a review of 7.5/10 in the leading Dutch metal magazine Aardschok, but back in 1989 they made more mistakes than just this one... ''Vengeance Is Mine'' deserved much more appreciation and respect! Luckily, this debut album is re-released by USA Records, and they combined it with the second album of Cruella as well. So, now you can update your record collection with both albums on one disk, and that's a good move. The second album of Cruella, entitled ''Shock The World'' was recorded 1989 and released one year later.

The whole package of album 1 and 2 results in a total playing time of 70 minutes pure pleasure! The second album still has the members Roger D'Carlo on Guitars, Rob Conrad on Bass and Dave Hval on Drums, but this time, the drummer is also taking care of the vocals. I don’t know why Rick Nolen left the between in between both albums, but one thing is for sure, the style changed drastic. While ''Vengeance Is Mine'' was pure U.S. Metal, we hear a diverse approach on the second album ''Shock The World''. You will have to see for yourself whose vocals you like the most. One thing is for sure: the guitars are overwhelming again, and it's a real joy to hear the strings yell and scream!

Cruella hailed from Portland, Oregon, and we don't know what the members are doing right now, except for Roger DeCarlo who is still very active in musical business. A man's gotta do what a man’s gotta do, so Roger joined several diverse musical companies and he's playing a varied number of styles. There is a band called Bunkdope, who released ''Sores'' in 2006, but this is an extreme act that has nothing to do with Cruella at all. Metal To Infinity suggests to look for this compiled cd with both Cruella albums on. I guess it's better to reward this collector cd as a total 'cause both albums have killer songs, although it's with different vocalists... My rating: 87/100

Patrick de Sloover on behalf of Metal To Infinity Webzine