EMI Music 

When Airbourne debuted in 2006, their tattoo-on-sleeve, fresh rock’n’roll approach gained them a following. As they toured more and played at large festivals, their potential audience grew as more people were caught off-guard by the purity of their rock’n’roll mission.
    Sure, the music dipped its hat to AC/DC in a big way, but it was pub rock, right? Well that seems fair enough on a first album, but a few years down the track on their second album, No Guts No Glory, it seems that Airbourne haven’t come very far. By this time you really think they would.
From opener, Born To Kill, and onwards through the likes of No Way But The Hard Way, Bottom Of The Well, White Line Fever and Armed And Dangerous, it’s all rhythm guitar-heavy, three chord crunches exploding around singer Joel O’Keefe’s (admittedly excellent) rock’n’roll scream. Steeltown, meanwhile, awkwardly recalls the spirit of Jimmy Barnes’ Working Class Man.
    Kind of charming when it started, but by now Airbourne have been riding the Highway To Hell a little too long.

BOB GORDON