Carl Begai

Twenty years in the making, Karma is the follow-up to Winger’s cock rock out-of-nowhere classic self-titled debut. It took a major wrong turn (synthetic second album In The Heart Of The Young), the resulting heaps of MTV abuse (Beavis & Butthead), the grunge era, and a directionless comeback album in 2007 (IV) to get the band back to what they did best. Simple yet ballsy, Karma is one of those records where fans don’t have to dig for adjectives to convince themselves it doesn’t suck. It helps that expectations were nil going in beyond hearing a sappy ballad or two, but no one predicted a stripped down rock-the-metal record. Guitar riffs dominate thanks to Reb Beach not having to fight his way through a cluttered mix, starting things off at a run with ‘Deal With The Devil’ and ‘Stone Cold Killer’ falling somewhere between Winger’s Pull record, and Danko Jones’ highest octane moments. (continue reading…)