Review | Kissin’ Dynamite-Living In The Fast Lane-The Best Of

AFM Records

In 2008 German rockers Kissin’ Dynamite released their debut `Steel Of Swabia’, that turned out as the perfect kick-off for their road to success. The five-piece originally started out as a school band years before and with the launch of their debut things got more serious and professional in no-time. Over the years Kissin’ Dynamite organically transformed from a young and hungry heavy metal band to a solid larger-than-life arena rock outfit, armed with good songwriting, musicianship and enjoyable lyrical content. Also, visually the band always came up with fun ideas. Plus there was always some sort of a connection with glam, big hair 80s rock present.

THE BEST OF

The band unleashed six studio albums so far, including chart positions, and played numerous club shows and festivals. With the release of the compilation album `Living In The Fast Lane-The Best Of’ it feels that a certain chapter of their career is closed. A reason could be that Kissin’ Dynamite parted ways with Metal Blade Records who released their latest studio album `Ecstasy’ in 2018 and signed a deal with Napalm Records for their upcoming studio album `Not The End Of The Road’ [out 21 January, 2022]. But before all of that they released several albums via AFM Records. And maybe because longtime drummer Andi Schnitzer called it a day recently [new drummer is Sebastian Berg] this former record company saw an opportunity to have a piece of that tasteful pie while they can.

`Living In The Fast Lane-The Best Of’ has two CD’s with 21 tracks in total and a booklet that has a bunch of nice band photos in it. The song selection is fan pleasing and well thought out. In fact, to me, this is kind of the perfect, kick-ass setlist for a headline show. I’ve seen the band a couple of times live, they are rock solid, energetic, infectious and fun on stage and this album makes me really hungry to see a show in the near future [hopefully]. This compilation is also a strong reminder of how many great and memorable songs Kissin’ Dynamite has written over the years. How the band has evolved in every aspect and that we definitely should not underestimate these guys.

IS IT WORTH TO BUY?

To make this double CD extra appealing and interesting for the fans, the tracks ,,Love Me Hate Me’’, ,,Against The World’’, ,,Supersonic Killer’’ and ,,Steel Of Swabia’’ are live versions taken from `Generation Goodbye-Dynamite Nights [2017]. Three songs are taken from Japan Editions [,,All Are Equal”, ,,Going All In” and ,,In The Eye Of The Shitstorm”]. ,,Living In The Fastlane” is a previously unreleased radio-edit. The other songs feature on regular studio albums. Absolute milestones among them are ,,I’ve Got The Fire’’, ,,I Will Be King’’, ,,DNA’’, ,,Money, Sex & Power’’ and the mega singalong ,,You’re Not Alone’’. The beautiful sensitive anthem ,,Fireflies’’ and the great tongue-in-cheek ,,Six Feet Under’’ are absolute indispensable here.

I enjoyed listening to this compilation, even though I have most of their CD’s in my collection. Hearing all these kick-ass songs in a row put a huge smile on my face for sure and I couldn’t resist singing along. I guess if you have their entire discography already and also a tight budget, this is not a must buy right away. It is more a nice to have one day. If you are not familiar with Kissin’ Dynamite, well this is a great introduction. Especially if you love to rock out on arena, anthem like, energetic, larger than life rock music.

Personally, I’m really looking forward to what these guys have in store for us with `Not The End Of The Road’. Two new tracks [the title track and ,,What Goes Up’’] are already released as video singles, so check that out. To me they both state that something great is coming our way.