Hitmen: Hitmen (2008 Re-Issue) : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Descended from Australian high-energy idols Radio Birdman, with future members of Sydney garage-revival stars the Hoodoo Gurus, the Hitmen had the gene pool, pow and tunes to make a worldwide ruckus and not enough of anything else. But the steel-pop spine in Johnny Kannis' war-chant vocals and the atomic guitars of Chris Masuak and Brad Shepherd on 1981's The Hitmen, in "Big Love," "Don't Hit Girls" and the cool-shit shopping list "I Don't Mind," assured the band's cult heroism and the record's rock-solid status in Aussie punk history. This two-CD reissue of the group's debut has enough extra studio and gig havoc to fill three old-school LPs, but it is dynamite context. The Hitmen's definitive versions of Birdman-related battle hymns "Didn't Tell the Man" and "Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers" are here. Live takes of Hitmen tracks like "Death Grip" give you more of the beast rattling under the album's spick-and-span production, while the Dictators and Blue Öyster Cult covers show the New York biker metal the Hitmen stuffed into their Detroit-'69 guitars. If that's not enough mayhem for you, the Hitmen's 1982 album It Is What It Is is now a two-CD bruiser too.