Royal Tramps - Dangerous And Extremely Unhealthy (1991)

Dangerous and Extremely Unhealthy marked the first time that Red Light Records -- a small hard rock/pop-metal label that was based in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines, IL in the late 1980s and early 1990s -- released a CD by a European band. The Royal Tramps (not to be confused with the 1970s disco/soul group the Trammps) hailed from Finland, where they recorded this decent, if unspectacular, hard-rock offering. None of the lyrics are in Finnish -- lead vocalist Jaska Vitikainen sings in English exclusively on the album, and he does so with few traces of a Finnish accent. Listening to aggressive, hard-driving tunes like "Colder" and "Turn On," Vitikainen generally gives very little indication that English isn't his primary language. The Royal Tramps won't win any awards for being groundbreaking, experimental, or distinctive -- their Deep Purple-meets-the Scorpions approach is about as derivative as it gets. Nonetheless, most of the songs are catchy and likable. Much to Red Light's disappointment, Dangerous and Extremely Unhealthy didn't break the Royal Tramps into North America, and this little known CD would be their only Red Light release.