FASTWAY
Eat Dog Eat
2011

By Shane Pinnegar

Ex-Motorhead guitar slinger Fast Eddie Clarke may have barely touched a guitar for the past decade, but he’s put in a fine showing on “Eat Dog Eat”, resurrecting the Fastway name for 2011 with ex-Little Angels vocalist Toby Jepson out front.

As with earlier Fastway albums, there is little to connect the man with his Motorhead glory days – Fastway always boasted more in common with the sound of Led Zeppelin than that of The ‘Head’s proto-punkish pre-thrash assault.

The album kicks off with a couple of solid melodic rockers in ‘Deliver Me’ and ‘Fade Out’, before Fast Eddie and Jepson really hit their stride together on ‘Leave Thee Light On’ – the vocal and guitars weaving effortlessly together. This is classy stuff worthy of these well experienced gentlemen, and when they gel like this there's no stopping them.

The rest of the album follows a similar pattern – there’s a heap of okay or good songs, and a few standouts like the bluesy ‘Dead & Gone’, which again sees the vocals and guitar working together to great effect.

A welcome comeback for both Fast Eddie and Jepson, and with luck a follow up can capitalise on their strengths and elevate more of their tracks above filler status and into the realm of Fastwway's bar-setting first two albums with Dave King (Now of Flogging Molly!).