A couple of years ago Lowestoft’s finest rock band, The Darkness, released a record that felt something like a return to form with Pinewood Smile followed by a live album that seemed to capture the band in fully rejuvenated spirit live as well — so, when I heard about the new album, Easter Is Cancelled, and saw it’s typically irreverent artwork, I was looking forward to similar.

As the album kicks off with lead single Rock ‘N’ Roll Deserves To Die things sound promising as the band’s usual sense of off beat humour and swagger feels intact as they decry the current state of their chosen musical style populated by ‘charlatans, all tattoos and no scars’.

Unfortunately, after that, for most of the record, something seems to be missing.

While there are riffs and rocking solos aplenty, along with Justin Hawkins trademark falsetto, the whole thing feels like the band’s joie de vivre has been misplaced. What we get instead are a mix of comparatively plodding hard rock ballads and soul searching on the part of the aforementioned singer and lyricist.

While this self exploration is, in theory, admirable, it causes the band to lose the knowing swagger that has, when they’re at their best, been their trademark and leaves most of the record feeling flat.

That’s not to say the album is outright bad just not quite what it feels like it should be, however there is one track that is a standout that at least brings some humour to proceedings along with some of the heaviest sounds the band have ever created – Heavy Metal Lover.

Here we find the band paying a kind of knowing tribute to the heavier end of rock music in a way that shows they aren’t simply out to ridicule — and how can you not like a song with lyrics like ‘make sweet love to Hammer Smashed Face’ and ‘your favourite power ballad is Chopped In Half,’ referencing Cannibal Corpse and Obituary respectively.

The whole thing then rounds up with We Are The Guitar Men that feels like it brings the spirit of the opening track full circle but with nothing really in between the effect is somewhat lost.

Ultimately though Easter Is Cancelled feels a bit too much like The Darkness taking themselves a bit too seriously, a little like what happened between their first and second albums Permission To Land and One Way Ticket, meaning that while there are a few decent riffs and songs that are enjoyable, it overall lacks the sense of hard rocking fun that makes this band so enjoyable when at their best.