Hollywood Vampires' Live In Rio is the jukebox of the damned

Fortune favours the grave as superstar supergroup Hollywood Vampires launch their first live album

Hollywood Vampires: Live In Rio cover art
(Image: © EarMusic)

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

Released to tie in with the Hollywood Vampires’ European tour this summer, this album – surely a missed opportunity not calling it Undead In Rio? – contains zero surprises and delivers exactly what you would expect: Brazilian fans getting it in the neck. 

Once you’re past opener Raise The Dead, Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry and Tommy Henriksen stake a claim to being the greatest covers band on earth as they sink their fangs into My Generation, Manic Depression, Whole Lotta Love, Cold Turkey and a full-blooded rendition of I Got A Line On You – basically, a set-list comprising a generous chunk of their 2015 debut album. 

Saving the best bites until last, Billion Dollar Babies, a runaway Train Kept A-Rollin’ and a lip-smacking Brown Sugar go beyond the first album and tip the avid audience into meltdown.

A classic-rocking jukebox of the damned, Live In Rio (thankfully) does not suck.

Essi Berelian

Whether it’s magazines, books or online, Essi has been writing about rock ’n’ metal for around thirty years. He has been reviews editor for Classic Rock and Metal Hammer, rock reviews editor for lads mag Front and worked for Kerrang!. He has also written the Rough Guide to Heavy Metal and contributed to the Rough Guide to Rock and Rough Guide Book of Playlists, and the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles (13th edition). Most fun interview? Tenacious D – Jack Black and Kyle Gass – for The Pick of Destiny movie book. An avid record/CD/tape collector, he’s amassed more music than he could ever possibly listen to, which annoys his wife no end.