Starring Alice Cooper guitarist Tommy Henriksen and featuring guest spots from Phil Collen and Nikki Sixx, Crossbone Skully’s debut – an unlikely concept album about an avenging superhero from the far reaches of space, who's here, like Flash Gordon before him, to save Planet Earth – might be dismissed as yet another underwhelming vanity project were it not for the involvement of superproducer Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange, who, we’re told, emerged from retirement to serve as executive producer on Evil World Machine.
Whether this is a purely ceremonial role or an actual working contribution remains unclear, but Mutt’s sonic fingerprints are all over the album, from the giant, propulsive riffs and the giant, clattering drums to the giant gang vocals that give lift to the giant, swaying choruses.
