Scream : Tokio Hotel : Review : Rolling Stone

It's official: these guys are the greatest German bubblegum-neo-glam-goth-emo boy band. Ever. On their English-language debut (they're already huge in Deutschland), the four fresh-faced lads from Magdeburg unveil a genre-and gender-bending act that justifies superlatives. Much of the credit goes to lead singer Bill Kaulitz, an 18-year-old androgyne whose stupendous electroshock hairdo stands a good six inches taller than Tina Turner's Eighties coif. Kaulitz is a technically limited vocalist, but he has the charisma of a natural frontman, delivering both yowling rockers ("Scream") and sentimental ballads (the acoustic weeper "By Your Side") with an audible twinkle in his eye that suggests he's not entirely serious. (His dodgy English diction — he pronounces the word "eyes" like "ice" — adds to the charm.) The taut power-trio arrangements mix the whisper-to-a-scream dynamics of post-grunge with glam-rock chords and a big dollop of emo's teen psychodrama. ("Ready, Set, Go!" has already soundtracked an angsty scene on The Hills.) And then there's "Love Is Dead," which sounds like a lost Eighties hair-metal chestnut. With some strategically applied spandex, Kaulitz could become the rock god Bret Michaels always wanted to be.