Severe Records
Black Roses
About This Album
Chicago rock quartet Painkiller Hotel, led by singer/guitarist Kevin Presbrey, plays melodic mainstream rock of a sort that, when marketed well, often sells in the millions. Presbrey sounds like he's been listening carefully to the music of some of the most successful rock bands of the previous decade -- acts like Matchbox 20, Creed, and Nickelback -- and crafted a similar sound in which a pounding rhythm section and slashing electric guitar riffs support, without overwhelming, a sonorous vocalist singing songs of romantic and spiritual yearning. (The lyrics may be clichéd, but they are sung earnestly, which is what counts.) This is not to say that Presbrey's approach (in which he is abetted by co-writer and producer Chris Sevier) is deliberately commercial; no doubt he's just making the kind of music he likes. But the ranks of independent rock labels tend to be filled with more adventurous and extreme sounds, whereas Painkiller Hotel seems like a band that's ready to jump to the majors and start filling arenas and mugging for VH1 any minute. Not every artist who sounds commercial ends up being commercial, of course. But Painkiller Hotel, on the basis of its debut album, has the sort of sound and style that has proven widely popular and easily could again. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7)

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