These are a couple of lines in the chorus to “The Fighting Song” a track towards the end of “Power Crazy”: “caught in the storm, but we carry on/called every name since we were born/but we’re still here and we’re going strong”.
That, rather neatly, sums up The Treatment’s career.
We first saw them on a free gig that Classic Rock put on about eight years back – where they very kindly let my brother’s then girlfriend, now my sister-in-law, in front of them in Subway Queue across the road (disclaimer: she didn’t actually know it was them until they played and she very excitedly said: “oooh look, that’s the nice lads from Subway”).
Then there was the time when you could barely move without seeing them support some bigger band (Quo, Thin Lizzy – and “…Song” has a natty line in Lizzy guitar about it – and many more) to now, where they are on their third singer, their fourth album, and their millionth struggle.
Thing is, that none of this stuff ever seems to faze them. Instead, their albums always sound as full of beans as music can be.
This time round, it is slightly different. The presence of new singer Tom Rampton – I saw them last year and he gave off the air of being ready to grab anyone that wasn’t totally into the band by the throat – has added a whiff of a good old scrap about things.
The opportunity of a ruck is all over this, it really is.
Firstly on “Rising Power” he offers this vignette: “I don’t want religion, I don’t want champagne, I just want to feel alive and kick you in the brain…”
Then on “Luck Of The Draw” there’s this: “in the good old days, men used their fists to fight”. And in fairness, the chorus for this is even better: “if you’re lonely, and she’s not yours only, then grow yourself some balls and phone me….”
Also, this, from “Falling Down” the records last track. “I’ll say it now, and I’ll say it again,” he opines. “that the sword is always mightier than the pen….”
And if none of that, in truth, is going to trouble the good people of the Nobel Prize for literature, it does, perhaps, give an insight into the mindset here.
This is it. This is their time.
“Lets Get Dirty” the lead track here, is typical of the band in 2019. Not least because it sounds like some Fenland version of Airbourne in truth and is indicative of a harder edged attitude to everything.
“On The Money” adds a bluesy touch, like a potty mouthed ZZ Top if you will, but goodness me, its catchy. So is the rest of it too, and realistically you won’t be able to resist the records charms. To that end, by the time “Bite Back” has done its thing you might well have your fists in the air like you just don’t care and look, “Hang ‘Em High” is about as unapologetic as rock n roll gets. And its only because I mentioned Airbourne once that I probably should refrain from doing so again – but come on…..
Reading the track names before I listened to them, I got to “Scar With Her Name” and thought: “yep, ballad.” Proving I know nothing, what it actually is, is a romp that The Cult would have sold millions with in the 1980s, and “King Of The City” is a proper slab of NWOBHM. The heaviest thing they’ve ever done, you betcha!
And if “Power Crazy” largely isn’t arsed with introspection whatsoever, then “Waiting for The Call” comes on a bit like early Whitesnake, and is a slower thing, with some decent soaring harmonies, but even here they can’t resist the hook line: “let’s beat them all…..”
That’s The Treatment on “Power Crazy”. It sounds like they’re ready for anything, and this time, if they are going down, they’re going down fighting.
Rating 8.5/10
