Best Young Finnish Hair Metal Band of the Day: Santa Cruz

Finland has a rich history of hair metal: Hanoi Rocks pretty much single-handedly spawned the entire worldwide movement in the early ’80s. Reckless Love have been amply carrying that torch in recent years, but there’s a new game in town: a band, ironically, that’s named themselves after a city in California.

Santa Cruz display all the hallmarks of classic hair metal in their new video for “We Are the Ones to Fall” — chains hanging from the ceiling, poofed-out hair, fire, cool rock stances — although I’m not sure what’s up with the blood. Nevertheless, these guys have the tune to back it up: they seem to take the most influence from the Skid Row / GNR late ’80s / early ’90s school of hard rocks, but “We Are the Ones to Fall” comes off like a United Colors of Benetton of ’80s metal — Def Lep gang vocals, Judas Priest riffs, DeMartini shred, etc. But mostly just a lot of Skid Row. And that’s a good thing!

Screaming for Adrenaline is out now. Stream it in full on Spotify.

[via Loudwire]