The Cruel Intentions

Vains of Jenna fans around the world breathed a sigh of relief and excitement in 2015 when original singer Lizzy Devine announced something big was-a-coming in the form of a new band called The Cruel Intentions. Soon after that, first single “Borderline Crazy” was released and I was hooked.

The riff is infectiously exciting and has you bopping your head instantly. Lizzy Devine has the Midas Touch in his vocal chords, his unique voice is what drew me to VoJ and what set them apart from a lot of the other Scandinavian sleaze bands of the 2000’s for me way back when and it’s awesome to hear him fronting a sleazy glam punk band again.

The next 2 years the band released video’s and singles for a couple more cool songs culminating in last year’s release of debut album “No Sign of Relief”. It’s hard not to compare The Cruel Intentions to Vains of Jenna but this release proves Devine’s new band is not a case of copy/pasting, of-course there’s still the big hooks and choruses in “Sick Adrenaline” and “Genie’s Got a Problem” but songs like “Jawbreaker”, “Reckoning” and “Chaos in a Bombshell” shows VoJ’s big brother has a bit more balls and edge to it.

Their I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude shines and the fast and loose early GN’R style playing makes this record feel unpredictable and exciting. Devine shows growth in his songwriting without the dull pitfall of trying to be deep.

This is music made to party to, loads and loads of riffs and solo’s, lyrics about getting wasted and going crazy and going crazy because of getting wasted too much. Who cares about self righteous douche bags singing about stopping world hunger or ending wars while cashing in on it when you can listen to a crazy Swede singing about a girl throwing up in the shower?

“No Sign of Relief” is an awesome first offering and it fills a void I didn’t notice I’ve been carrying with me since 2010. I’m sure The Cruel Intentions will be around to kick our asses for a long time and I can’t wait to hear more stuff.

The Cruel Intentions are: Lizzy Devine - Lead Vocals and guitar. Kristian Solhaug - Lead Guitar. Mats Wernerson - Bass. Robin Nilsson - Drums

Buy No Sign of Relief here.

Listen on Spotify:

Why This Blog?

Recently I was searching the internet and Spotify for some cool new bands to listen to and found I was having a hard time finding songs to add to my playlists. Once again I was getting frustrated by inaccurate similar-to’s & horrible recommended-for-you’s.

Not giving up and jonesing to be blown away by something I hadn’t heard before, after some time I finally struck gold! My patience was rewarded and I found a couple of bands I really dug, my appetite was now being satiated by awesome singles, E.P.’s and albums. 

While listening I started doing my usual research about the artists, where are they from? How long have they been playing? What bands did they play in before this? Have they released more stuff than there’s on Spotify (the answer to that is usually yes, and I often find people’s best work isn’t on the platform) etc.

And of course the million dollar question, any new music being written or recorded? Shows or tours coming up? Sadly I found out that more than half of the bands I just discovered had already called it quits.

This was not the first time this has happened to me and it always really bums me out. And what pisses me off even more is that so little is being written about their music. This while bands & records that have been around forever keep on being praised, reviewed and played to death on the radio.

So I decided to take it upon myself to help spread the word about new bands & records and lament the ones that aren’t around anymore who I believe should’ve gotten more recognition.