Yep, they're still going! Not so much rock believers as rock survivors, it's genuinely amazing that Germany's Scorpions are putting out albums in this year of our lord 2022, nearly sixty years after forming all the way back in 1965. Main members Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker are currently 73, making bassist Paweł Mąciwoda and drummer Mikkey Dee downright youthful at 55 and 58 respectively. And although we'd probably forgive a disappointing record from legends like these quite easily, that Rock Believer (the band's nineteenth studio album) is actually pretty great is something of a bonus. You could point to several factors that contributed to that, from the hiring of final Motörhead sticksman Dee to the Covid-related delays on top of an already lengthy writing process that started back in 2019, yet this is the most inspired that the band have sounded in a few albums now. The usual mix of rockers and ballads are present and correct, the rockers going that much harder, the ballads extra emotive and heartfelt - and most manage to be catchy as hell, not to mention more diverse than usual.

For although not all of the songs here are terrific, they usually manage to be interesting enough to be worth a listen. Few would call opener Gas in the Tank a real highlight, for instance, but the driving riffs are solid enough and that bizarrely Manic Street Preachers-esque chorus helps it to stick in your head. Conversely, the stomping, downright Dio-ian Seventh Sun hits all the right epic notes with plenty of lead guitar worship, and When I Lay My Bones to Rest kicks up the gear into rocking like an early Aerosmith jam. And fortunately some songs are downright great, not least first single Peacemaker which is more like the work of Accept than what you'd expect of Scorpions, chugging riffs leading a heavy metal anthem that will doubtless go down a storm live. Plenty of songs here are about the band themselves and playing music, which is the kind of thing that only hard rock gets away with - it's always deeply cringy when death or black metal start self-aggrandising, for example. And you can read far too much into the likes of When You Know (Where You Come From), the closing ballad about second chances and looking for exits from the highway of life; damn, guys, is the rockstar life so hard? From the evidence overall, they still believe in the power of their music and can still make a more than solid Scorpions album. No, it's not close to their 70s heyday, yet for an album this far into their musical life it's still pretty great, and enough to make a believer out of you, too.